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diphthong.

A complex vowel sound that begins with the sound of one vowel and ends with the sound of another vowel, in the same syllable.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈdɪfˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/UK/ˈdɪpˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/UK, nonstandard/ˈdɪfˌθɔŋ/Canada, General-American/ˈdɪpˌθɔŋ/Canada, General-American, nonstandard
  1. A complex vowel sound that begins with the sound of one vowel and ends with the sound of another vowel, in the same syllable.

  2. A diaphoneme realized as a two-target vowel in some but not necessarily all dialects.

  3. A vowel digraph or ligature.

    rare
Where this word comes from

PIE word *dwóh₁ Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwi- Proto-Hellenic *dwi- Ancient Greek δι- (di-) Ancient Greek φθέγγομαι (phthéngomai) Ancient Greek φθόγγος (phthóngos) Ancient Greek δῐ́φθογγος (dĭ́phthongos)der. Latin diphthongusbor. French diphtongueder. English diphthong From French diphtongue, from Late Latin diphthongus, from Ancient Greek δίφθογγος (díphthongos, “two sounds”), from δίς (dís, “twice”) + φθόγγος (phthóngos, “sound”). Displaced native Old English twifeald swēġ, (literally, "twofold swey").

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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.