dieresis

Or di·aer·e·sis

[dahy-er-uh-sis]

noun

plural

diereses 

1. Linguistics, Phonetics.,  the separation of two adjacent vowels, dividing one syllable into two.

2. Phonetics, Orthography.,  a diacritic (¨) placed over the second of two adjacent vowels to indicate separate pronunciation, as in one spelling of the older forms naïve and coöperate: no longer widely used in English.

3. Prosody.,  the division made in a line or verse by coincidence of the end of a foot and the end of a word.

dieresis

/ daɪˈɛrɪsɪs, ˌdaɪəˈrɛtɪk /

noun

1. a variant spelling of diaeresis

Other Word Forms

• dieretic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of dieresis¹

1605–15; < Latin diaeresis < Greek diaíresis literally, distinction, division, equivalent to diaire-, stem of diaireîn to divide ( di- di- ³ + haireîn to take) + -sis -sis

Example Sentences

But those at The New Yorker are something else entirely, a species nova that mutated into existence in 1925 and would hurl itself off a cliff rather than forsake the dieresis in “coöperate.”

From New York Times

Since the ligatures “æ” and “œ” are used consistently, dieresis can be assumed even when not explicitly indicated.

From Project Gutenberg

At "anapest" it was a noticeable frown, at "apothem" it became very pronounced, and at "dieresis" his shaggy red brows nearly covered his eyes, he was frowning so hard.

From Project Gutenberg