1. The omission or loss of a letter or syllable from a word, especially the loss of a vowel between two consonants.
Usage: linguistics; also spelled 'hyphairesis'

Examples

• The word 'library' often undergoes hyphaeresis in casual speech, becoming 'libry'.
• Hyphaeresis is common in the evolution of languages over time.
• Linguists study hyphaeresis to understand how pronunciation patterns change.
• The loss of the middle vowel in 'separate' pronounced as 'seprate' is an example of hyphaeresis.
• Hyphaeresis differs from other phonetic processes like metathesis and assimilation.