Lenition

//lɪˈnɪʃən//

Synonyms for "lenition"

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

7 relation types

Antonyms

1 entries

coordinate

1 entries

derived

2 entries

derived from

1 entries

etymologically related_to

1 entries

has context

2 entries

related to

3 entries

Translations

44 translations across 30 languages.

Powered by Wiktionary

Asturian

1 entries
  • lenición noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Breton

1 entries
  • blotadur noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Catalan

1 entries
  • lenició noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Chinese Mandarin

2 entries
  • 弱音化 noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • 輔音弱化 /辅音弱化 noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Cornish

1 entries
  • treylyans medhel noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Dutch

2 entries
  • lenitie noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • verzachting noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Finnish

1 entries
  • pehmeneminen noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

French

3 entries
  • adoucissement noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • lénition noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • mutation adoucissante noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Galician

1 entries
  • lenición noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Georgian

1 entries
  • ლენიცია noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

German

2 entries
  • Lenierung noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • Lenisierung noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Hebrew

1 entries
  • החלשות עיצורים noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Hungarian

4 entries
  • gyengülés noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • gyöngülés noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • leníció noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • mássalhangzó-gyengülés noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Irish

1 entries
  • séimhiú noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Italian

2 entries
  • lenizione noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • mutazione dolce noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Japanese

1 entries
  • 子音弱化 noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Korean

1 entries
  • 연음화 noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Latin

1 entries
  • lenitio noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Manx

1 entries
  • boggaghys noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Norwegian

2 entries
  • lenisering noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • lenisjon noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Polish

1 entries
  • lenicja noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Portuguese

2 entries
  • lenização noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • lenição noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Russian

1 entries
  • лени́ция noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Sardinian

1 entries
  • lenitzione noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Scottish Gaelic

2 entries
  • analachadh noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • sèimheachadh noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Sicilian

1 entries
  • linizziuni noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Spanish

2 entries
  • lenición noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • lenificación noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Turkish

1 entries
  • yumuşama noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Vietnamese

1 entries
  • lơi hóa noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Welsh

2 entries
  • meddaliad noun (weakening of consonant articulation)
  • meddalu noun (weakening of consonant articulation)

Sample sentences

4 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

One of these processes, the process of T-Lenition, is extremely common, even though it takes place only when the input consonant is adjacent to a small number of affixes. In this change, a stopped consonant, [p t k b d g], becomes a fricative, [s, z, š, ž]. This process is called lenition, or weakening.

Source: wiktionary

Environments are an essential part of any discussion of lenition. Textbooks often describe lenition as occurring in the weak intervocalic or word-final environments. The canonical examples of lenition given earlier in (1) through (3) all occur either between vowels or between sonorants.

Source: wiktionary

2008, Krzysztof Jaskula, Celtic, Joaquim Brandão de Carvalho, Tobias Scheer, Philippe Ségéral (editors), Lenition and Fortition, Studies in Generative Grammar: 99, page 347, As for Goidelic languages, the situation is clearer because Lenition III in this subfamily consisted in losing the same property as the first two lenitions, namely stopness.

Source: wiktionary

2011, Naomi Gurevich, 66: Lenition, Marc van Oostendorp, Colin J. Ewen, Elizabeth V. Hume, Keren Rice (editors), The Blackwell Companion to Phonology, Volume III: Phonological Processes, page 1573, Five general patterns of lenitions – all based to some extent on empirical data – are identified.

Source: wiktionary

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.