ablaut

Syllables: ab·lowtUS/ˈɑbˌlaʊt/

ablaut noun: the substitution of one root vowel for another, thus indicating a corresponding modification of use or meaning; vowel permutation, distinct from the phonetic influence of a succeeding vowel.

Noun

ablaut (countable and uncountable, plural ablauts)

The substitution of one root vowel for another, thus indicating a corresponding modification of use or meaning; vowel permutation, distinct from the phonetic influence of a succeeding vowel.
- I declare to you that Literature was not written for schoolmasters, nor for schoolmistresses. I would not exchange it for a wilderness of schoolmasters. It should be delivered from them, who, with their silly Ablauts and ‘tendencies,’ can themselves neither read nor write.1920, Arthur Quiller-Couch, On The Art of Reading
Synonyms:

alternation

Verb

ablaut (third-person singular simple present ablauts, present participle ablauting, simple past and past participle ablauted)

(intransitive) To undergo a change of vowel.
- This root must once have ablauted, given the associated nominal derivatives prthii- 'broad', prthivl- 'earth'. However, it does not ablaut at all in its verbal forms.1983, Stephanie W. Jamison, Function and Form in the -áya-formations of the Rig Veda and ..., page 209
- What we find is that one cannot predict which members of V a given member of E will cause to ablaut1985, Michael E. Krauss, Yupik Eskimo prosodic systems: descriptive and comparative studies, page 241
(transitive) To cause to change a vowel.

ablaut meaning in Tamil

ablaut in Tamil

உள்ளுயிர் மாற்றம்

Examples of ablaut in a sentence

It is these co-opted verbs that tend to ablaut variably in the different Dakotan dialects and that forced morphological restructuring2006, Felix K. Ameka, Alan Charles Dench, Nicholas Evans, Catching language: the standing challenge of grammar writing, page 536:
This allomorph also causes the back vowel to ablaut to a low vowel.2012, Bernard Comrie, Zarina Estrada Fernández, Relative Clauses in Languages of the Americas: A Typological Overview, page 219:

Synonyms of ablaut

alternation

Forms of ablaut

Noun
plural	ablauts
Verb
third-person singular present	ablauts
present participle	ablauting
past participle	ablauted
past	ablauted

Origin of ablaut

Borrowed from German Ablaut (“sound gradation”), which is from ab- or ab (“down, off”), + Laut (“sound”). Ab is used here in the sense of “deviating, varying” as in Abgott (“god other than the true God”), Abart (“different sort, variety, anomality”).

Words formed from ablaut

Words that rhyme with ablaut

42 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ablaut

What does ablaut mean?: Ablaut means the substitution of one root vowel for another, thus indicating a corresponding modification of use or meaning; vowel permutation, distinct from the phonetic influence of a succeeding vowel.
What is ablaut in Tamil?: Ablaut in Tamil is உள்ளுயிர் மாற்றம். See Ablaut meaning in Tamil.
How do you use ablaut in a sentence?: It is these co-opted verbs that tend to ablaut variably in the different Dakotan dialects and that forced morphological restructuring
What part of speech is ablaut?: Ablaut can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce ablaut?: Ablaut is pronounced /ˈɑbˌlaʊt/ (US).
What is the plural of ablaut?: The plural of ablaut is ablauts.

Words near ablaut in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: ablaut (page history and authors); ablaut (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ablaut.wav, en-ca-ablaut.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ablaut.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ablaut. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.