Monophthong

A monophthong is a vowel whose quality remains constant throughout its pronunciation.

Examples

• [i] in reed, fee, or east

(NB: monophthongs are becoming increasingly rare in many dialects of American English, so some speakers may not produce this vowel as a monophthong.)

Origin

From Greek mono-phthongos 'single-sound'.

Related terms

• diphthong (a vowel whose quality changes once during its pronunciation)
• triphthong (a vowel whose quality changes twice during its pronunciation)

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