1. The insertion of a sound or letter into the middle of a word, often to ease pronunciation.
Usage: linguistics term; also called excrescence

Examples

• The word 'athlete' is sometimes pronounced with epenthesis, becoming 'ath-uh-lete' instead of 'ath-lete'.
• In casual speech, epenthesis occurs when 'realtor' is pronounced 'real-uh-tor'.
• The insertion of a schwa sound in 'hamster' to make 'ham-ster' is an example of epenthesis.
• Epenthesis explains why some speakers pronounce 'chimney' as 'chim-uh-ney'.
• Linguists study epenthesis to understand how languages naturally evolve in pronunciation.