1. Plural of anaptyxis; the insertion of a vowel sound within or between consonants to ease pronunciation, especially in linguistic history or phonetics.
Usage: linguistics; technical term; also called epenthesis in some contexts

Examples

• The anaptyxes in Old English helped speakers pronounce difficult consonant clusters.
• Linguists study anaptyxes to understand how languages evolve phonetically over time.
• The insertion of vowels in anaptyxes is a common feature in language development.
• Historical anaptyxes can be traced through written records and comparative phonology.