schwa means an indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "about", represented as /ə/ in IPA. It carries an Arena rating of 1499, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, schwa ranks #606 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #1,843 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #3,381 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #7,208 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words.
schwa is pronounced /ʃwɑ/.
Why “schwa” is a great word
The indeterminate, neutral, and typically unstressed central vowel sound, represented by the symbol /ə/. From German Schwa, from Hebrew שְׁוָא (shva, a diacritical mark indicating reduction or absence of a vowel), which was itself borrowed from Classical Syriac ܫ̈ܘܰܝܳܐ (š'wayyā, literally 'even, equal'), a term for a punctuation sign. Unlike "vowel" (a broad category of unobstructed sounds) or "shva" (a specific mark in Hebrew orthography), schwa is the phonetic ghost that haunts our unstressed syllables. It is the murmur in "above," the swallowed 'o' in "condition," and the exhaled end of "sofa." It is the democracy of the mouth, reducing all bright vowels to a common, quiet hum—the sonic equivalent of everything wearing down to a smooth, featureless stone.
Etymology
Borrowed from German Schwa, from Hebrew שווא / שְׁוָא (shva, šəwā, “(mark indicating reduction or absence of a vowel)”), borrowed from Classical Syriac ܫ̈ܘܰܝܳܐ (š'wayyā, literally “even, equal”), in Syriac a term for a sign consisting of two vertical dots used to separate parts of a sentence. Doublet of shva.
noun
- An indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "about", represented as /ə/ in IPA.
- The name of the Latin script letter Ə/ə.
verb
- To be reduced to schwa.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- schwi 70% match — An indeterminate near-close central unrounded vowel sound, such as the "e" in "roses" or the "y" in "very", depending on the accent; sometimes represented as [[[ɨ]]] in IPA or [[[ᵻ]]] in para-IPA. vs schwa →
- shva 63% match — A Hebrew nikud vowel sign written as two vertical dots beneath a letter, in Israeli Hebrew indicating either the phoneme /e/ or the complete absence of a vowel. vs schwa →
- umlaut 55% match — An assimilatory process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vocoid that is separated by one or more consonants. vs schwa →
- semiconsonant 53% match — A semivowel. vs schwa →
- schwebeablaut 53% match — The phenomenon or process of metathesis in a Proto-Indo-European root between the vowel and a neighbouring sonorant, which led to both possible full-grades existing, e.g. *grebʰ- and *gerbʰ-. vs schwa →
- avagraha 51% match — A symbol (ऽ) used in the Devanagari script and other Indian scripts, to mark vocalic gemination or the elision of the inherent vowel a in the process of sandhi in Sanskrit. vs schwa →
- unvoweled 50% match — Having no vowel sounds or signs. vs schwa →
- vowelling 49% match — An arrangement of vowels, for example in Semitic scripts where they are marked over the consonants. vs schwa →