Word.ws English Dictionary

schwu

/ʃwuː/

schwu noun: an indeterminate near-close central rounded vowel sound, such as the "u" in "awful" or the initial "o" in "omission", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɵ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵿ]]] in para-IPA.

Noun

schwu (plural schwus)

  1. An indeterminate near-close central rounded vowel sound, such as the "u" in "awful" or the initial "o" in "omission", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɵ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵿ]]] in para-IPA.
    • Reflecting this loss of contrast, Wells uses schwi (the so-called ‘happy-vowel’) and schwu (weak-u), replacing [ɪ] and [ʊ] and giving [ˈhæpiə] and [ˈdʒæɡuə].2011, Patricia Ashby, Understanding Phonetics (Understanding Language), →ISBN, page 112
    • OED’s base vowel set for British English also includes [...] the barred-/ɪ/ and barred-/ʊ/ symbols (sometimes called ‘schwi’ and ‘schwu’), but these are not separate ‘phonemes’.2023, “What’s in a pronunciation? British and U.S. transcription models in the OED: Q&A”, in Oxford English Dictionary, archived from the original on 24 Jul 2023

Forms of schwu

pluralschwus

Origin of schwu

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

Words that rhyme with schwu

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about schwu

What does schwu mean?
Schwu means an indeterminate near-close central rounded vowel sound, such as the "u" in "awful" or the initial "o" in "omission", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɵ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵿ]]] in para-IPA.
What part of speech is schwu?
Schwu is a noun.
How do you pronounce schwu?
Schwu is pronounced /ʃwuː/.
What is the plural of schwu?
The plural of schwu is schwus.

Words near schwu in the dictionary

  1. schwitzed
  2. schwitzes
  3. schwitzing
  4. Schwoerer
  5. Schwoerers
  6. schwu
  7. schwung
  8. schwus
  9. Schwyz
  10. Schwyzer Dutsch
  11. Schwyzertütsch

Source and license

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