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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

palatalize.

To pronounce a sound with the tongue against the palate of the mouth when that sound normally would not be so pronounced.

10 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈpælətəlaɪz/
  1. To pronounce a sound with the tongue against the palate of the mouth when that sound normally would not be so pronounced.

    transitive
    Most English speakers palatalize the letter t in the word "nature".
  2. To be pronounced with the tongue against the palate.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂-? Proto-Indo-European *pel-? Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂-osder. Latin palātumder. Old French palatbor. Middle English palate English palate Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al English -al English palatal Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English palatalize From palatal + -ize.

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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.