| schwa (shwä) n. 1. A mid-central neutral vowel, typically occurring in unstressed syllables, as the final vowel of English sofa. 2. The symbol (  ) used to represent an unstressed neutral vowel and, in some systems of phonetic transcription, a stressed mid-central vowel, as in but.[German, from Hebrew  w ', probably from Syriac (nuqz ) wayy, even (points), pl. passive participle of w, to be even; see wy in Semitic roots.] |
schwa, shwa [ʃwɑː]
n
1. (Linguistics / Phonetics & Phonology) a central vowel represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by (ə). The sound occurs in unstressed syllables in English, as in around, mother, and sofa
2. (Linguistics / Phonetics & Phonology) the symbol (ə) used to represent this sound
[via German from Hebrew shewā, a diacritic indicating lack of a vowel sound]
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
| Noun | 1. | schwa - a neutral middle vowel; occurs in unstressed syllables vowel, vowel sound - a speech sound made with the vocal tract open murmur vowel, murmur - a schwa that is incidental to the pronunciation of a consonant |
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