lenition
/lɪˈnɪʃən/US/ləˈnɪʃən/
lenition noun: a weakening of articulation causing a consonant to become lenis (soft).
Noun
lenition (countable and uncountable, plural lenitions)
- A weakening of articulation causing a consonant to become lenis (soft).
- One of these processes, the process of T-Lenition, is extremely common, even though it takes place only when the input consonant is adjacent to a small number of affixes. In this change, a stopped consonant, [p t k b d g], becomes a fricative, [s, z, š, ž]. This process is called lenition, or...2001, Robert Stockwell, Donka Minkova, English Words: History and Structure, page 104
- Environments are an essential part of any discussion of lenition. Textbooks often describe lenition as occurring in the weak intervocalic or word-final environments. The canonical examples of lenition given earlier in (1) through (3) all occur either between vowels or between sonorants.2001, Lisa M. Lavoie, Consonant Strength: Phonological Patterns and Phonetic Manifestations, page 7
- Antonyms:
- fortition
lenition meaning in Vietnamese
lenition in Vietnamese
- weakening of consonant articulation
- lơi hóa
Examples of lenition in a sentence
- One of these processes, the process of T-Lenition, is extremely common, even though it takes place only when the input consonant is adjacent to a small number of affixes.2001, Robert Stockwell, Donka Minkova, English Words: History and Structure, page 104:
- Lenition is a phonological change from one sound into another.2026 February 4, Stefan G. Müller, “An Annotated Na’vi Dictionary”, in ’Ivong Na’vi, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2026, page 2:
Antonyms of lenition
Forms of lenition
| plural | lenitions |
|---|
Origin of lenition
Analyzable as lenis + -ition, or as if from Latin lēnīt(us) + -ion, or Latin lēnītiō (“softening”) from lēniō (“soften”) + -tiō (action noun suffix) (attested since at least the 1500s, the same timeframe lenition is first attested in English with the sense "assuaging"). Modelled on German Lenierung.
Words formed from lenition
Questions about lenition
- What does lenition mean?
- Lenition means a weakening of articulation causing a consonant to become lenis (soft).
- What is lenition in Vietnamese?
- Lenition in Vietnamese is lơi hóa. See Lenition meaning in Vietnamese.
- How do you use lenition in a sentence?
- One of these processes, the process of T-Lenition, is extremely common, even though it takes place only when the input consonant is adjacent to a small number of affixes.
- What part of speech is lenition?
- Lenition is a noun.
- How do you pronounce lenition?
- Lenition is pronounced /lɪˈnɪʃən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of lenition?
- The plural of lenition is lenitions.
Words near lenition in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lenition (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lenition.wav.
Cite this entry: “lenition.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lenition. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.