Synaeresis

Alternative forms

• syneresis US, synæresis

Origin

From Ancient Greek συναίρεσις (sunairesis, "unification"), from συν (sun, "together") + αἵρεσις (airesis, "taking"), from αἱρέω (aireō, "I take").

Full definition of synaeresis

Noun

1. (linguistics, prosody) the contraction of two vowels into a diphthong or a long vowel.
2. (chemistry) the separating out of the liquid from a gel.

Hypernyms

• (linguistics, prosody) metaplasm