Diacritic

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /daɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/

Origin

From Ancient Greek διακριτικός (diakritikos, "distinguishing, separative"), from διακρίνειν (diakrinein, "to distinguish, separate"), from διά (dia, "between") + κρίνω (krinō, "I separate, distinguish").

Full definition of diacritic

Adjective

1. distinguishing
2. (orthography, not comparable) Denoting a distinguishing mark applied to a letter or character.

Synonyms

• diacritical

Noun

1. A special mark added to a letter to indicate a different pronunciation, stress, tone, or meaning.

Synonyms

• accent
• diacritical mark

Derived terms

• diacritical

Hyponyms

• cedilla
• diaeresis
• röck döts
• tilde
• umlaut