Word.ws English Dictionary

schwi

/ʃwiː/

schwi noun: an indeterminate near-close central unrounded vowel sound, such as the "e" in "roses" or the "y" in "very", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɨ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵻ]]] in para-IPA.

Noun

schwi (plural schwis)

  1. An indeterminate near-close central unrounded vowel sound, such as the "e" in "roses" or the "y" in "very", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɨ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵻ]]] in para-IPA.
    • Similarly the syllable "day" in "Sunday" is to be printed smaller than the rest of the type and in the higher position to show, first that the vowel is unstressed and second that the sounds needs to be "schwi,"1966, Albert J. Mazurkiewicz, The Initial Teaching Alphabet and the World of English: Proceedings
    • Accent Hint No. 1 -- if the first syllable contains a one-syllable prefix, the vowel in that syllable is unaccented and thus is probably a schwa /ə/ or schwi /i/.1972, Marsha Fabian, Mary Rhodes Hoover, Patterns for reading, page 141

Forms of schwi

pluralschwis

Origin of schwi

Blend of schwa + i. Alteration of vowel in the word schwa to more closely approximate the sound described.

Words that rhyme with schwi

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about schwi

What does schwi mean?
Schwi means an indeterminate near-close central unrounded vowel sound, such as the "e" in "roses" or the "y" in "very", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɨ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵻ]]] in para-IPA.
What part of speech is schwi?
Schwi is a noun.
How do you pronounce schwi?
Schwi is pronounced /ʃwiː/.
What is the plural of schwi?
The plural of schwi is schwis.

Words near schwi in the dictionary

  1. Schwers
  2. Schwertfeger
  3. Schwertfegers
  4. schwertmannite
  5. schwertmannites
  6. schwi
  7. Schwider
  8. Schwieder
  9. Schwieger
  10. Schwiegers
  11. Schwier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: schwi (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)-Flame, not lame-schwi.wav.

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