Word.ws English Dictionary

monophthong

UK/ˈmɒnəfˌθɒŋ(ɡ)//ˈmɑnəfˌθɔŋ/

monophthong noun: a vowel (in the sense of a sound rather than a letter of the alphabet) that has the same sound throughout its pronunciation, such as the short vowels in "pap", "pep", "pip", "pop" and "pup", as opposed to a diphthong (eg, /aɪ/, the vowel in "pipe") or a triphthong (eg, /aɪə/, the sound in the non-rhotic pronunciation of "pyre").

Noun

monophthong (plural monophthongs)

  1. A vowel (in the sense of a sound rather than a letter of the alphabet) that has the same sound throughout its pronunciation, such as the short vowels in "pap", "pep", "pip", "pop" and "pup", as opposed to a diphthong (eg, /aɪ/, the vowel in "pipe") or a triphthong (eg, /aɪə/, the sound in the non-rhotic pronunciation of "pyre").

monophthong meaning in Tamil, Persian and Vietnamese

monophthong in Tamil

ஓருயிர்

monophthong in Persian

vowel that has same sound throughout its pronunciation
واکهٔ ساده vâke-ye sâde

monophthong in Vietnamese

vowel that has same sound throughout its pronunciation
nguyên âm đơn

Forms of monophthong

pluralmonophthongs

Origin of monophthong

From Ancient Greek μονόφθογγος (monóphthongos), from μόνος (mónos, “single”) + φθόγγος (phthóngos, “sound”).

Words formed from monophthong

Questions about monophthong

What does monophthong mean?
Monophthong means a vowel (in the sense of a sound rather than a letter of the alphabet) that has the same sound throughout its pronunciation, such as the short vowels in "pap", "pep", "pip", "pop" and "pup", as opposed to a diphthong (eg, /aɪ/, the vowel in "pipe") or a triphthong (eg, /aɪə/, the sound in the non-rhotic pronunciation of "pyre").
What is monophthong in Tamil?
Monophthong in Tamil is ஓருயிர். See Monophthong meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is monophthong?
Monophthong is a noun.
How do you pronounce monophthong?
Monophthong is pronounced /ˈmɒnəfˌθɒŋ(ɡ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of monophthong?
The plural of monophthong is monophthongs.

Words near monophthong in the dictionary

  1. monophrases
  2. monophrasis
  3. monophthalmia
  4. monophthalmic
  5. monophthalmus
  6. monophthong
  7. monophthongal
  8. monophthongality
  9. monophthongally
  10. monophthongic
  11. monophthongisation

Source and license

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

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

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