diacritic
/ˌdʌɪəˈkrɪtɪk
/noun
A sign, such as an accent or cedilla, which when written above or below a letter indicates a difference in pronunciation from the same letter when unmarked or differently marked.Admittedly a lot of those are basic Roman characters with diacritics but the exact positioning of the diacritic can be tricky - and it can sometimes modify the basic character shape....
- Accuracy is thus particularly relevant when testing reading in a pointed orthography, which involves attention to both letters and diacritics in different linguistic contexts.
- The other three vowels are represented by diacritics, which are super- or sub-scripted to the letters in a word.
adjective
(Of a mark or sign) indicating a difference in pronunciation.But it has now lost its appeal largely because a total of 136 syllables require additional phonetic signs or diacritic marks, making it a fairly cumbersome system for printing and typing....
- They all contain numerous diacritic marks for which musical equivalents could be deduced.
- Even pinyin using diacritic marks has problems.
Origin
Late 17th century: from Greek diakritikos, from diakrinein 'distinguish', from dia- 'through' + krinein 'to separate'.
Rhymes
- gregariousness
- greggle
- Gregorian calendar
- Gregorian chant
- Gregorian telescope
- Gregory of Nazianzus, St
- Gregory of Nyssa, St
- Gregory of Tours, St
- Gregory, St
- Gregory XIII
- greige
- greige goods
- greigite
- greisen
- gremlin
- gremolata
- Grenache
- Grenada
- grenade
- Grenadian
- grenadier
- Grenadier Guards
- Grenadiers
- grenadilla
- grenadine