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🇩🇪German Source WordCode: DE

Metathese

Pronunciation / Transliteration: Metathese

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Metathesis/mɪˈtæθ.ə.sɪs/
nounCEFR C2 (Proficient)Top #28500 frequency
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🇩🇪 Example Sentence in German:

"Die Metathese beschreibt die Vertauschung von Lauten innerhalb eines Wortes."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    The transposition of sounds or syllables within a word, such as the historical shift from Old English 'bridd' to Modern English 'bird'.

    "The pronunciation of 'comfortable' often undergoes metathesis in casual speech, resulting in 'comfterble'."
  2. 2

    A chemical reaction in which two compounds exchange elements or groups to form new compounds.

    "Double displacement reactions in chemistry are classic examples of chemical metathesis."
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Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the ancient Greek word 'metathesis', meaning 'transposition', formed from 'meta-' (denoting change) and 'thesis' (placing, arrangement). Entering Late Latin and subsequently modern European languages in the 16th century, the term originally denoted rhetorical transposition before establishing its primary contemporary application in historical linguistics to describe the shifting of sounds within words.

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