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Diacritic - 5 dictionary results

di⋅a⋅crit⋅ic

   [dahy-uh-krit-ik]
–noun
1. Also called diacritical mark. a mark, point, or sign added or attached to a letter or character to distinguish it from another of similar form, to give it a particular phonetic value, to indicate stress, etc., as a cedilla, tilde, circumflex, or macron.
–adjective
2. diacritical.
3. diagnostic.
Origin:
1670–80; < Gk diakritikós distinctive, equiv. to dia- dia- + kritikós; see critic
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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di·a·crit·ic     (dī'ə-krĭt'ĭk)  Pronunciation Key 
adj.  
  1. Diacritical.
  2. Medicine Diagnostic or distinctive.

n.   A mark, such as the cedilla of façade or the acute accent of resumé, added to a letter to indicate a special phonetic value or distinguish words that are otherwise graphically identical.


[Greek diakritikos, distinguishing, from diakritos, distinguished, from diakrīnein, to distinguish : dia-, apart; see dia- + krīnein, to separate; see krei- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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diacritic 
1699, from Gk. diakritikos "that separates or distinguishes," from diakrinein "to separate."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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diacritic

adjective
1. capable of distinguishing; "students having superior diacritic powers"; "the diacritic elements in culture"- S.F.Nadel 

noun
1. a mark added to a letter to indicate a special pronunciation [syn: diacritical mark] 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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Diacritic

Di`a*crit"ic\, Diacritical \Di`a*crit"ic*al\, a. [Gr. ?, fr. ? to separate, distinguish; dia` through + ? to separate. See Critic.] That separates or distinguishes; -- applied to points or marks used to distinguish letters of similar form, or different sounds of the same letter, as, [=a], [a^], ["a], [=o], [o^], etc. "Diacritical points." --Sir W. Jones.

A glance at this typography will reveal great difficulties, which diacritical marks necessarily throw in the way of both printer and writer. --A. J. Ellis.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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