cedilla

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish cedilla (literally “little zed”), c. 1600. In Spanish cedilla referred to the letter ⟨Ç⟩, which had evolved from ⟨Ꝣ⟩, a Visigothic form of the letter Z (called a Z with copete); hence the name. The lower part of ⟨Ç⟩ (which came to be reinterpreted as a diacritical mark under a C) is the remnant of the original Z, after it gradually reduced in size; whereas the upper part was originally just an ornamentation over the Z (which increased in size until it resembled letter C, and finally came to be identified with this letter).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˈdɪlə/, enPR: sə-dĭʹlə

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlə

Noun

cedilla (plural cedillas)

¸ Ç ç

1. (orthography) A diacritical mark ⟨¸⟩ placed beneath a letter to modify its pronunciation, used in the orthographies of many languages, such as under c in Catalan, French and Portuguese to indicate /s/ rather than /k/ (e.g. Catalan força, French menaçant, Portuguese almoço) and in other languages to modify the pronunciation of the letter c (e.g. from /d͡ʒ/ to /t͡ʃ/ in Turkish) or of other letters.

   Synonyms: (dated) cedille, cédille

   • 2015 April 11, Tovin Lapan, “California birth certificates and accents: O’Connor alright, Ramón and José is not”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 4 April 2025:

     California, like several other states, prohibits the use of diacritical marks or accents on official documents. That means no tilde (~), no accent grave (`), no umlaut (¨) and certainly no cedilla (¸).

Usage notes

Sometimes retained in words which have been adopted into English, specifically from French, such as facade / façade.

Derived terms

• cedillated

Translations

diacritical mark

• Arabic: سِدِيلَا f (sidīlā)
• Azerbaijani: sedil
• Belarusian: цэды́ллю (cedýllju)
• Catalan: trencat (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 軟音符 / 软音符 (zh) (ruǎnyīnfú)

• Czech: cedilla f
• Dutch: cedille (nl)
• Esperanto: subhoko, zoeto, cedilo
• Finnish: sedilji (fi)
• French: cédille (fr) f
• German: Cedille (de) f
• Hungarian: cédille (hu), cedilla (hu), (somewhat informal) bal farok, (informal) farkinca (hu), (informal) akasztó (hu)
• Ido: cedilio (io)
• Indonesian: cedilla
• Irish: straithín m
• Italian: cediglia (it) f
• Japanese: セディーユ (sedīyu)
• Korean: 세디유 (sediyu)
• Manx: seddag f, straihleen m
• Occitan: cedilha (oc) f
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: سِدیل (sedil)

• Polish: cedylla f
• Portuguese: cedilha (pt) f
• Romanian: sedilă (ro) f
• Russian: седи́ль (ru) f (sedílʹ)
• Spanish: cedilla (es) f
• Swedish: cedilj (sv) c
• Turkish: çengel işareti (tr), sedil
• Ukrainian: седи́ль f (sedýlʹ)
• Uzbek: sedil

See also

• ç
• ogonek

Anagrams

• cleidal

Indonesian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Spanish cedilla.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃe.dɪl.la/
• Rhymes: -la
• Hyphenation: ce‧dil‧la

Noun

cedilla (plural cedilla-cedilla)

1. (orthography) cedilla

Further reading

• “cedilla”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Spanish

Etymology

From Old Spanish ceda (“letter Z”) +‎ -illa (diminutive suffix); cognate with modern Spanish zeta.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /θeˈdiʝa/ [θeˈð̞i.ʝa] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)

• IPA^(key): /θeˈdiʝa/ [θeˈð̞i.ʝa] (Equatorial Guinea, most of Spain)
• IPA^(key): /θeˈdiʎa/ [θeˈð̞i.ʎa] (rustic northern Spain)

 

• IPA^(key): /seˈdiʝa/ [seˈð̞i.ʝa] (Latin America)

• IPA^(key): /seˈdiʝa/ [seˈð̞i.ʝa] (most of Latin America)
• IPA^(key): /seˈdiʎa/ [seˈð̞i.ʎa] (northern and central Andes Mountains (except central Ecuador), Bolivia, Paraguay, northeastern Argentina, Philippines)
• IPA^(key): /seˈdiʃa/ [seˈð̞i.ʃa] (Buenos Aires and environs)
• IPA^(key): /seˈdiʒa/ [seˈð̞i.ʒa] (central Ecuador, Santiago del Estero and environs, elsewhere in Pampas and southern Argentina, Uruguay)
• IPA^(key): /seˈdia/ [seˈð̞i.a] (northern Mexico, Yucatán, Central America (except Panama))

 

• Rhymes: -iʝa

• Rhymes: -iʝa (Equatorial Guinea, most of Latin America and Spain)
• Rhymes: -iʎa (rustic northern Spain, northern and central Andes Mountains (except central Ecuador), Bolivia, Paraguay, northeastern Argentina, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -iʃa (Buenos Aires and environs)
• Rhymes: -iʒa (central Ecuador, Santiago del Estero and environs, elsewhere in Pampas and southern Argentina, Uruguay)
• Rhymes: -ia (northern Mexico, Yucatán, Central America (except Panama))

• Syllabification: ce‧di‧lla

Noun

cedilla f (plural cedillas)

1. name of the letter ç
2. (orthography) cedilla

Descendants

• → English: cedilla
• → French: cédille
  • → Dutch: cedille
  • → English: cédille
  • → Finnish: sedilji
  • → German: Cedille, Zedille
  • → Iranian Persian: سِدیل (sedil)
  • → Norwegian:

    Norwegian Bokmål: cédille

    Norwegian Nynorsk: cédille

  • → Russian: седи́ль (sedílʹ)
    • → Azerbaijani: sedil
    • → Turkmen: sedil
    • → Uzbek: sedil
  • → Turkish: sedil
  • → Ukrainian: седи́ль (sedýlʹ)
• → Italian: cediglia
• → Portuguese: cedilha
• → Romanian: sedilă

Further reading

• “cedilla”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025