umlaut
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umlaut
- /ˈʊm.laʊt/ UK
- /ˈʌmlaʊt/ UK
- /ˈʊm.laʊt/ US
- /ˈumlaʊt/ US
Rhymes with -aʊt
Where it comes from
Borrowed from German Umlaut in the 19ᵗʰ century, from um- or um (“around, re-, trans-”) + Laut (“sound”), from Old High German hlūt. More at loud.
noun umlauts · umlaute
- An assimilatory process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vocoid that is separated by one or more consonants. In fits of concealed despair that went unnoticed even by those close enough to touch, Julien cursed the language of umlauts, eszetts, and gerunds.
- The umlaut process (as above) that occurred historically in Germanic languages whereby back vowels became front vowels when followed by syllable containing a front vocoid (e.g. Germanic lūsiz > Old English lȳs(i) > Modern English lice).
- A vowel so assimilated.
- The diacritical mark ( ¨ ) placed over a vowel when it indicates a (rounded) front vowel
-
Synonym of diaeresis.
"Naïve" takes an umlaut because it is pronounced as two syllables.
Similar: diaeresis
Similar: trema, vowel mutation
verb umlauts · umlauting · umlauted
- To place an umlaut over (a vowel). We kept some of the foreign alphabet symbols such as the accented and umlauted vowels and Greek letters and used the rest of the space for more esoteric linguistic symbols such as "barred-l," and "engma."
- To modify (a word) so that an umlaut is required in it. an umlauting vowel
Thesaurus
noun
Similar: trema, vowel mutation
Translations
Every language
noun partial assimilation of a vowel
| Español | metafonía |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | ウムラウト umurauto |
| 中文 | 元音變音 /元音变音 yuányīn biànyīn |
| Português | umlaut, metafonia |
| Français | métaphonie |
| Deutsch | Umlaut |
| Italiano | metafonesi |
| Ελληνικά | μεταφωνία metafonía |
| Русский | умла́ут umláut, умля́ут umljáut |
| Tiếng Việt | um-lau |
| العربية | مُغَيِّرَة muḡayyira |
noun vowel so assimilated
| 中文 | 變元音 /变元音 biànyuányīn |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Halbdoppellaut, Umlaut, umgelauteter Vokal |
noun diacritical mark
| Español | diéresis |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 움라우트 umnauteu |
| 日本語 | ウムラウト umurauto |
| 中文 | 分音符號 /分音符号 fēnyīn fúhào, 分音符 fēnyīnfú |
| Português | umlaut, trema |
| Français | tréma |
| Deutsch | Umlaut, Umlautzeichen |
| Ελληνικά | διαλυτικά dialytiká |
| Русский | умла́ут umláut, умля́ут umljáut |
| Tiếng Việt | dấu um-lau |
| العربية | مُغَيِّرَة muḡayyira |
| עברית | אומלאוט |
Talk about this word "umlaut." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/umlaut. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. umlaut. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/umlaut "umlaut." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/umlaut.Cite this
@misc{umlaut_2026,
title = {umlaut},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/umlaut},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
