schwa
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schwa¹
- /ʃwɑ/
- /ʃwə/ humorous
- /ʃwʌ/ humorous
Rhymes with -ɑː, -ʌ
Where it comes from
Borrowed from German Schwa, from Hebrew שווא / שְׁוָא (shva, šəwā, “(mark indicating reduction or absence of a vowel)”), borrowed from Classical Syriac ܫ̈ܘܰܝܳܐ (š'wayyā, literally “even, equal”), in Syriac a term for a sign consisting of two vertical dots used to separate parts of a sentence. Doublet of shva.
noun schwas · shwa
-
An indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "about", represented as /ə/ in IPA.
The participle has also, owing to the accent, the lightest possible forms; but here there was no reduplication, and so in class I. the "schwa" took the form e before single mutes or fricatives, and elsewhere o.
Similar: natural vowel, neutral vowel
- The name of the Latin script letter Ə/ə.
verb schwas · schwaing · schwaed · shwa
- To be reduced to schwa.
schwa²
noun schwas
- Alternative form of shva
Translations
Talk about this word "schwa." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/schwa. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. schwa. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/schwa "schwa." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/schwa.Cite this
@misc{schwa_2026,
title = {schwa},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/schwa},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
