What does diaereses mean?
Diaereses is the plural of diaeresis, a term from Greek meaning 'division'. In its most familiar modern sense, a diaeresis is the diacritical mark consisting of two dots placed over a vowel — typically the second of two adjacent vowels — to indicate that the letters are pronounced separately rather than blended into a single sound. It appears in words like 'naïve', where it tells readers to say 'nah-EEV' in two syllables, and in names like 'Zoë' and 'Chloë', where it prevents readings such as 'Zohe'. The word also has an older, technical sense in classical prosody and linguistics, referring to the actual division of a vowel sound into distinct syllables. Diaereses should not be confused with umlauts, which look identical but signal a change in vowel quality, especially in German. Today the mark is declining in everyday English but remains standard in careful typography and in certain proper names and loanwords, making diaereses a useful word for editors, writers, and anyone interested in how spelling guides pronunciation.
nounDiaereses is the plural of diaeresis: the mark (¨) placed over a vowel, or the division of a vowel sound into two syllables that it marks.
- The diacritical mark (¨) placed over the second of two adjacent vowels to show they are pronounced as separate syllables, as in 'naïve' or 'coöperate'.
- The linguistic phenomenon itself: the division of one vowel sound into two separate syllables.
"The proofreader added diaereses to words like 'naïve' and 'Chloë' so each vowel would be pronounced separately."
"The style guide retained diaereses in borrowed words such as 'Brontë' and 'aïoli' to guide pronunciation."
"In classical prosody, diaereses marked the boundary where a metrical foot ends at the same point as a word division."
This is already the plural form; the singular is 'diaeresis'. American spelling variants are 'diereses' (plural) and 'dieresis' (singular).
"Older books printed with diaereses over second vowels to prevent misreading words such as 'reenter' and 'cooperate'."
That innocent-looking pair of dots in 'naïve' has been splitting vowels apart since ancient Greek grammarians coined the term — it literally means 'division'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of diaereses
The word derives from Greek diairesis, meaning 'division' or 'separation', formed from diairein ('to divide'), itself built on dia- ('apart') and hairein ('to take'). Ancient Greek grammarians used the term for the separation of adjacent vowels into distinct syllables, and the sense extended to the typographical mark signalling that division. The Latinized form diaeresis entered English scholarly writing in the early 17th century. It shares its Greek root with words such as dialectic and catharsis.
How diaereses is actually used
The word is formal and largely confined to typography, linguistics, and editing contexts. British English favours the spelling 'diaeresis/diaereses' with the internal 'ae'; American English often uses the simpler 'dieresis/diereses'. The mark is increasingly rare in modern English, surviving mainly in names like 'Brontë' and 'Zoë' and loanwords like 'naïve'.
Easily confused with diaereses
A diaeresis signals that two adjacent vowels are pronounced separately, whereas an umlaut indicates a vowel-quality change rooted in Germanic phonology.
'Dieresis' is simply an alternative spelling of 'diaeresis', with 'diaereses' being the plural of both forms.