1. diacritical marks (¨) placed over vowels in German and other languages to indicate a change in pronunciation
Usage: linguistics; typography
2. the vowels in German that are modified by these marks (ä, ö, ü)
Usage: German language

Examples

• German words like ‘Mädchen’ and ‘schön’ contain umlauts.
• The student learned to type umlauts on her computer keyboard.
• Without proper umlauts, German words can be misspelled or misunderstood.
• The pronunciation of umlauts differs significantly from regular vowels.
• Many German surnames contain umlauts that are sometimes dropped in English.
• The word ‘Führer’ has an umlaut over the letter u.