Meaning & use
diacritics
Last updated
Marks added to letters to indicate a different pronunciation, stress, or meaning, such as an accent or umlaut.
See it in a sentence
French uses diacritics like the acute accent to show how certain vowels should be pronounced.
Without the diacritics, the word's pronunciation would be ambiguous to readers.
A note on using this word
From Greek "diakritikos," meaning "distinguishing," diacritics help differentiate words or sounds that would otherwise look identical.
Words with a similar meaning
accent marks
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