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dieresis

Syllabification: (di·er·e·sis)

Pronunciation: /dīˈerəsis/

(also diaeresis)

Definition of dieresis

noun (plural diereses /-ˌsēz/)

1a mark (¨) placed over a vowel to indicate that it is sounded in a separate syllable, as in naïve, Brontë.
the division of a sound into two syllables, especially by sounding a diphthong as two vowels.

2 Prosody a natural rhythmic break in a line of verse where the end of a metrical foot coincides with the end of a word.

Origin:

late 16th century (denoting the division of one syllable into two): via Latin from Greek diairesis 'separation', from diairein 'take apart', from dia 'apart' + hairein 'take'

dieresis in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of dieresis in the British & World English dictionary

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