cedilla
[ si-dil-uh ]
/ sɪˈdɪl ə /
noun
a mark (¸) placed under a consonant letter, as under c in French, in Portuguese, and formerly in Spanish, to indicate that it is pronounced (s), under c and s in Turkish to indicate that they are pronounced, respectively, (ch) and (sh), or under t and s in Romanian to indicate that they are pronounced, respectively, (ts) and (sh).
this mark used as a diacritic of arbitrary value in transliteration of words from non-Roman into Roman alphabetic characters.
Origin of cedilla
1590–1600; < Spanish variant spelling of
zedilla little
z, equivalent to
zed(a)
zed +
-illa diminutive suffix; the mark was so called from its original form
Words nearby cedilla
cedarn,
cedarwood,
cedarwood oil,
cede,
cedi,
cedilla,
cedric,
cee,
ceeb,
ceefax,
ceelen-gellerstadt syndrome
Example sentences from the Web for cedilla
British Dictionary definitions for cedilla
cedilla
/ (sɪˈdɪlə) /
noun
a character ( ¸ ) placed underneath a c before a, o, or u, esp in French, Portuguese, or Catalan, denoting that it is to be pronounced (s), not (k). The same character is used in the scripts of other languages, as in Turkish under s
Word Origin for cedilla
C16: from Spanish: little
z, from
ceda zed, from Late Latin
zeta; a small
z was originally written after
c in Spanish, to indicate a sibilant