Word.ws English Dictionary

aphesis

/ˈæ.fə.sɪs/

aphesis noun: the loss of the initial unstressed vowel of a word.

Noun

aphesis (countable and uncountable, plural apheses)

  1. (rhetoric) The loss of the initial unstressed vowel of a word.
    • The word "scarp" is derived from "escarp" by aphesis.

aphesis meaning in Malayalam

aphesis in Malayalam

ഒരു പദത്തിലെ സ്വരം ലോപിക്കൽ

Forms of aphesis

pluralapheses

Origin of aphesis

Attested since 1880. Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἄφεσις (áphesis, “letting go”), from ἀφίημι (aphíēmi), from ἀπο- (apo-, “off”) + ἵημι (híēmi, “send forth”).

Questions about aphesis

What does aphesis mean?
Aphesis means the loss of the initial unstressed vowel of a word.
What is aphesis in Malayalam?
Aphesis in Malayalam is ഒരു പദത്തിലെ സ്വരം ലോപിക്കൽ. See Aphesis meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is aphesis?
Aphesis is a noun.
How do you pronounce aphesis?
Aphesis is pronounced /ˈæ.fə.sɪs/.
What is the plural of aphesis?
The plural of aphesis is apheses.

Words near aphesis in the dictionary

  1. aphereses
  2. apheresis
  3. apheresized
  4. apheretic
  5. apheses
  6. aphesis
  7. apheta
  8. aphetas
  9. aphetic
  10. aphetically
  11. aphetise

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: aphesis (page history and authors); aphesis (Malayalam 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.

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

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