noun
- plural of schwa; the neutral vowel sounds represented by the symbol ə in phonetic transcription
Usage: linguistics
Examples
- The word ‘about’ contains two schwas in its pronunciation.
- Students often struggle to identify schwas in unstressed syllables.
- Many English words have schwas that aren’t obvious from their spelling.
- The teacher explained how schwas make English pronunciation challenging.
- Schwas are the most common vowel sounds in spoken English.
- Dictionary pronunciations use the symbol ə to mark schwas.