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diacritic.

Distinguishing.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/Received-Pronunciation/ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/Canada, General-American[ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪɾɪk]Canada, General-American/ˌdɑɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/Australia

  1. Distinguishing.

  2. Denoting a distinguishing mark applied to a letter or character.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *dwísder. Ancient Greek διά (diá) Ancient Greek δια- (dia-) Proto-Indo-European *krey- Proto-Indo-European *-n- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *krinyéti Proto-Hellenic *kríňňō Ancient Greek κρῑ́νω (krī́nō) Ancient Greek κρῐ- (krĭ-) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek κρῐτής (krĭtḗs) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) Ancient Greek -ῐκός (-ĭkós) Ancient Greek κριτικός (kritikós) Ancient Greek δῐᾰκρῐτῐκός (dĭăkrĭtĭkós)lbor. English diacritic Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek διακριτικός (diakritikós, “distinguishing, separative”), from διακρῑ́νω (diakrī́nō, “to distinguish, separate”), from δια- (dia-, “between”) + κρῑ́νω (krī́nō, “I separate, distinguish”).

noun/ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/Received-Pronunciation/ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/Canada, General-American[ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪɾɪk]Canada, General-American/ˌdɑɪəˈkɹɪtɪk/Australia

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

  2. A letter added to another letter serving a similar indicative function.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *dwísder. Ancient Greek διά (diá) Ancient Greek δια- (dia-) Proto-Indo-European *krey- Proto-Indo-European *-n- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *krinyéti Proto-Hellenic *kríňňō Ancient Greek κρῑ́νω (krī́nō) Ancient Greek κρῐ- (krĭ-) Proto-Hellenic *-tās Ancient Greek -τής (-tḗs) Ancient Greek κρῐτής (krĭtḗs) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) Ancient Greek -ῐκός (-ĭkós) Ancient Greek κριτικός (kritikós) Ancient Greek δῐᾰκρῐτῐκός (dĭăkrĭtĭkós)lbor. English diacritic Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek διακριτικός (diakritikós, “distinguishing, separative”), from διακρῑ́νω (diakrī́nō, “to distinguish, separate”), from δια- (dia-, “between”) + κρῑ́νω (krī́nō, “I separate, distinguish”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.