schwa Hear it!

schwa definition

schwa (s̸hwä, s̸hvä)

noun

  1. the neutral mid-central vowel sound of most unstressed syllables in English: the sound represented by a in ago, e in agent, i in sanity, etc.
  2. the symbol (ə) for this sound, as in the International Phonetic Alphabet and this dictionary

Etymology: Ger < Heb sheva, a diacritic marking silence instead of a vowel sound

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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