diaeresis

prosody

Also known as: dieresis

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Also spelled:: dieresis

Related Topics:: poetry

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diaeresis, (from Greek diairein, “to divide”), the resolution of one syllable into two, especially by separating the vowel elements of a diphthong and, by extension, two adjacent vowels. It is also the mark placed over a vowel to indicate that it is pronounced as a separate syllable. (For example, the word cooperation can be written as coöperation.) In classical prosody, diaeresis refers to the end of a word coinciding with the completion of the metrical foot, in contrast to caesura, which refers to a word ending within a metrical foot.

This article was most recently revised and updated by J.E. Luebering.