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Diphthong   /dˈɪpθɔŋ/   Listen
noun
Diphthong  n.  (Orthoepy)
(a)
A coalition or union of two vowel sounds pronounced in one syllable; as, ou in out, oi in noise; called a proper diphthong.
(b)
A vowel digraph; a union of two vowels in the same syllable, only one of them being sounded; as, ai in rain, eo in people; called an improper diphthong.



verb
Diphthong  v. t.  To form or pronounce as a diphthong; diphthongize. (R.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Diphthong" Quotes from Famous Books



... hundred and five to forty-three bishops. The Greek word, which was chosen to express this mysterious resemblance, bears so close an affinity to the orthodox symbol, that the profane of every age have derided the furious contests which the difference of a single diphthong excited between the Homoousians and the Homoiousians. As it frequently happens, that the sounds and characters which approach the nearest to each other accidentally represent the most opposite ideas, the observation would be itself ridiculous, ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 2 • Edward Gibbon

... going to tell how disconcerting it was to William to serve people who were apparently religious and worldly-minded at the same time. He could not reconcile this kind of diphthong living with his notions of piety. At least their sins lay ...
— A Circuit Rider's Wife • Corra Harris

... chief points of divergence from the general American understanding of the 'Roman' method are in respect of the diphthong AE and the consonantal U. In these cases the pronunciation herein recommended for the AE is that favored by Roby, Munro, and Ellis, and adopted by the Cambridge Philological Society; for the V, or U consonant, that advocated by Corssen, A. J. Ellis, ...
— The Roman Pronunciation of Latin • Frances E. Lord

... mitre, hither and thither: In whether, e short, and weather, in neither e long; likewise e is pronounc'd and unpronounc'd in the middle, as commandements, righteous, covetous, stupefie, not in careful, careless, grateful, feareful; not in wednesday, and is pronounc'd after a diphthong or double consonant, very needlesly, as in inne, Anne, asse, poore, roome, joye, cause, laws, coife, choice, juice, and as badly after syllables made long by a or i, as feares, roads, theire, veine, veile, either. In Beresford the latter e is mispronounced by Scholarship, mistaken ...
— Magazine, or Animadversions on the English Spelling (1703) • G. W.

... undertaker the motto on Kenyon's hatchment in Lincoln's Inn Fields had been painted 'Mors Janua Vita,' instead of 'Mors Janua Vitae,' he exclaimed, "Bless you, there's no mistake; Kenyon's will directed that it should be 'Vita,' so that his estate might be saved the expense of a diphthong." Capital also was his reply when Erskine urged him to accept the Great Seal. "How can you," he asked, in a tone of solemn entreaty, "wish me to accept the office of Chancellor, when you know, Erskine, that I am as ignorant of its duties as you are yourself?" At the time of uttering these words, ...
— A Book About Lawyers • John Cordy Jeaffreson


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