metathesis

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin metathesis, from Ancient Greek μετάθεσις (metáthesis), from μετά (metá, “among”) +‎ θέσις (thésis, “placement”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /mə.ˈtæ.θə.sɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /mə.ˈtæ.θə.sɪs/, [mə.ˈtʰæ.θə.səs], /mɛ.ˈtæ.θə.sɪs/, [mɛ.ˈtʰæ.θə.sɪs]

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

metathesis (countable and uncountable, plural metatheses)

1. (phonetics, prosody) The transposition of letters, syllables or sounds within a word, such as in ask as /æks/.

   Hyponym: hyperthesis

2. (inorganic chemistry) The double decomposition of inorganic salts.
3. (organic chemistry) The breaking and reforming of double bonds in olefins in which substituent groups are swapped.

Derived terms

• olefin metathesis
• quantitative metathesis
• self-metathesis

 

Related terms

• metathetic
• metathesize

Translations

the transposition of letters, syllables or sounds within a word

• Arabic: قَلْب مَكَانِيّ m (qalb makāniyy)
• Armenian: դրափոխություն (hy) (drapʻoxutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: yerdəyişmə
• Breton: metatezenn (br) f
• Catalan: metàtesi (ca) f
• Dutch: metathesis (nl) f, metathese (nl) f, letteromzetting f
• Finnish: takaheitto, metateesi (fi)
• French: métathèse (fr) f
• Galician: metátese (gl) f
• German: Metathese (de) f
• Greek: αντιμετάθεση (el) f (antimetáthesi)

  Ancient: μετάθεσις f (metáthesis)

• Hungarian: hangátvetés (hu)
• Icelandic: hljóðavíxl n pl, stafavíxl n pl
• Italian: metatesi f
• Japanese: 音位転換 (おんいてんかん, on'itenkan)
• Malay: metatesis
• Nepali: विपर्यय (viparyaya)
• Old Norse: stafasnúning
• Polish: metateza f, przestawka (pl) f
• Portuguese: metátese (pt) f
• Romanian: metateză (ro) f
• Russian: метате́за (ru) f (metatɛ́za), перестано́вка (ru) f (perestanóvka) (зву́ков и́ли слого́в в слова́х)
• Scottish Gaelic: eadar-chàradh m
• Spanish: metátesis (es) f
• Swedish: stavelseväxling c, metates (sv) c
• Welsh: trawsosodiad m
• Yoruba: pàṣípààrọ̀

the double decomposition of inorganic salts

• Finnish: metateesi (fi)

the breaking and reforming of double bonds in olefins in which substituent groups are swapped

• Finnish: metateesi (fi)
• Malay: metatesis
• Polish: metateza f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} métathèse (fr) f
• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} gagnkvæm efnahópaskipti við efnahvörf n pl, ^{(please verify)} gagnkvæm frumeindaskipti við efnahvörf n pl
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} metatesi f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} метатеза f

  Roman: ^{(please verify)} metateza (sh) f

See also

• spoonerism

Further reading

• metathesis (linguistics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• thematises