noun
- speech sounds that begin with one vowel sound and glide into another within the same syllable
Usage: linguistics; phonetics
Examples
- The word ‘coin’ contains the diphthong /ɔɪ/.
- English has several diphthongs, including the sounds in ‘house’ and ‘time’.
- Students learning pronunciation often struggle with diphthongs.
- The teacher explained how diphthongs differ from simple vowels.
- Many regional accents affect how diphthongs are pronounced.
- Diphthongs are common in English but less frequent in Spanish.