Word.ws English Dictionary

epenthesis

Syllables: epen·the·sis/ɪˈpɛn.θə.sɪs/

epenthesis noun: the insertion of a phoneme, letter, or syllable into a word, usually to satisfy the phonological constraints of a language or poetic context.

Noun

epenthesis (countable and uncountable, plural epentheses)

  1. (rhetoric) The insertion of a phoneme, letter, or syllable into a word, usually to satisfy the phonological constraints of a language or poetic context.

epenthesis meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Indonesian

epenthesis in Hindi

insertion of a phoneme or letter into a word
अपिनिहिति apinihiti

epenthesis in Tamil

இடைச்செருகல் சொல்

epenthesis in Bengali

epenthesis
অপিনিহিতি opinihiti

epenthesis in Indonesian

insertion of a phoneme or letter into a word
epentesis, swarabakti
More languagesFewer languages
epenthesis in Persian
میانهشت miyân-hešt

Forms of epenthesis

pluralepentheses

Origin of epenthesis

Middle of 16th century: via Late Latin, from Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις (epénthesis), from ἐπεντίθημι (epentíthēmi, “to insert”), from ἐπί (epí) + ἐντίθημι (entíthēmi, “to put in”), from ἐν (en, “in”) + τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”).

Words formed from epenthesis

Questions about epenthesis

What does epenthesis mean?
Epenthesis means the insertion of a phoneme, letter, or syllable into a word, usually to satisfy the phonological constraints of a language or poetic context.
What is epenthesis in Hindi?
Epenthesis in Hindi is अपिनिहिति (apinihiti). See Epenthesis meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is epenthesis?
Epenthesis is a noun.
How do you pronounce epenthesis?
Epenthesis is pronounced /ɪˈpɛn.θə.sɪs/.
What is the plural of epenthesis?
The plural of epenthesis is epentheses.

Words near epenthesis in the dictionary

  1. ependymocytes
  2. ependymoma
  3. ependymomas
  4. ependymomata
  5. epentheses
  6. epenthesis
  7. epenthesize
  8. epenthesized
  9. epenthesizes
  10. epenthesizing
  11. epenthetic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: epenthesis (page history and authors); epenthesis (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অপিনিহিতি (Bengali) (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: en-us-epenthesis.ogg.

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