METATHESIS (metatheses)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: metatheses   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does metathesis mean? 

• METATHESIS (noun)
  The noun METATHESIS has 2 senses:

1. a linguistic process of transposition of sounds or syllables within a word or words within a sentence

2. a chemical reaction between two compounds in which parts of each are interchanged to form two new compounds (AB+CD=AD+CB)

  Familiarity information: METATHESIS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• METATHESIS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A linguistic process of transposition of sounds or syllables within a word or words within a sentence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Hypernyms ("metathesis" is a kind of...):

linguistic process (a process involved in human language)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A chemical reaction between two compounds in which parts of each are interchanged to form two new compounds (AB+CD=AD+CB)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

double decomposition; double decomposition reaction; metathesis

Hypernyms ("metathesis" is a kind of...):

chemical reaction; reaction ((chemistry) a process in which one or more substances are changed into others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "metathesis"):

double replacement reaction (a chemical reaction between two compounds where the positive ion of one compound is exchanged with the positive ion of another compound)