æ.
The twenty-seventh letter of the Norwegian Bokmål alphabet, written in the Latin script.
Meaning & usage
The twenty-seventh letter of the Norwegian Bokmål alphabet, written in the Latin script.
Where this word comes from
From the Latin ligature ⟨æ⟩, formed by joining ⟨a⟩ and ⟨e⟩. The Latin sequence ⟨ae⟩ originally represented a diphthong but later developed a monophthongal pronunciation, allowing the joined character to be associated with a single front vowel. The character was adopted with the Latin alphabet into medieval Scandinavian writing and used to represent native front unrounded vowels. In Danish and Norwegian, ⟨Æ, æ⟩ became established as an independent letter rather than merely a typographical ligature. Swedish and German instead developed the corresponding letter ⟨Ä, ä⟩, originally formed with a small ⟨e⟩ written above ⟨a⟩.
The lowercase form of Æ, the twenty-seventh letter of the Norwegian Bokmål alphabet, written in the Latin script and placed between z and ø.
Ordet skrives med liten æ.
the front unrounded vowel sound represented by the letter, especially long /æː/ or short /æ/
Ordet uttales med lang æ.
Where this word comes from
From the Latin ligature ⟨æ⟩, formed by joining ⟨a⟩ and ⟨e⟩. The Latin sequence ⟨ae⟩ originally represented a diphthong but later developed a monophthongal pronunciation, allowing the joined character to be associated with a single front vowel. The character was adopted with the Latin alphabet into medieval Scandinavian writing and used to represent native front unrounded vowels. In Danish and Norwegian, ⟨Æ, æ⟩ became established as an independent letter rather than merely a typographical ligature. Swedish and German instead developed the corresponding letter ⟨Ä, ä⟩, originally formed with a small ⟨e⟩ written above ⟨a⟩.
an exclamation expressing open-mouthed surprise or astonishment; huh, ah
a hesitation sound expressing uncertainty or difficulty finding the appropriate words; uh, um
an exclamation expressing pleasure, enjoyment or satisfaction; ah
Where this word comes from
A sound-symbolic utterance; a spelling variant of æh.
I; first-person singular subject pronoun
Where this word comes from
Inherited from Old Norse ek (“I”), from Proto-Germanic *ek (“I”), from Proto-Indo-European *éǵh₂óm (“I”). The form represents dialectal developments in which the final consonant disappeared and the vowel developed into /æː/. The related form æg (“I”) retains the final consonant. Compare Norwegian Nynorsk eg, Icelandic ég, Faroese eg, Swedish jag, Danish jeg, English I and German ich (“I”).
a teasing exclamation expressing schadenfreude at another person's mistake or misfortune, or triumph at having been proved right
Where this word comes from
A sound-symbolic and rhyming taunt, usually used together with bæ.
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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.