CEDILLA Definition & Meaning

cedilla

[si-dil-uh]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Phonetics, Orthography.��a diacritic (¸) placed under a consonant letter, as under c in French, in Portuguese, and formerly in Spanish, to indicate that it is pronounced (s), under c and s in Turkish to indicate that they are pronounced, respectively, (ch) and (sh), or under t and s in Romanian to indicate that they are pronounced, respectively, (ts) and (sh).
Orthography.��this mark used as a diacritic of arbitrary value in transliteration of words from non-Roman into Roman alphabetic characters.

cedilla

/ ��ɪˈ��ɪ��ə /

noun

a character ( ¸ ) placed underneath a c before a, o, or u, esp in French, Portuguese, or Catalan, denoting that it is to be pronounced (s), not (k). The same character is used in the scripts of other languages, as in Turkish under s

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of cedilla¹

1590–1600; < Spanish variant spelling of zedilla little z, equivalent to zed ( a ) zed + -illa diminutive suffix; the mark was so called from its original form

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of cedilla¹

C16: from Spanish: little z, from ceda zed, from Late Latin zeta; a small z was originally written after c in Spanish, to indicate a sibilant

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

To make a C with a cedilla, for example, involved a lot more effort and thought than holding down the Option key on your Mac.

From

The mark used to indicate the soft c is called the cedilla.

From

The cedilla is an etymological sign added by modern grammarians.

From

The thought of them, at any time of the day, can put a cedilla under my heart to soften it....

From

It was usual to write instead of the z—c with a cedilla, and this was probably the origin of the mistake.

From

cedi Cedric

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