metathesis
nounUK /məˈtæ.θə.sɪs/ · US /məˈtæ.θə.sɪs/
Etymology Borrowed from Late Latin metathesis, from Ancient Greek μετάθεσις (metáthesis), from μετά (metá, “among”) + θέσις (thésis, “placement”).
1
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Prosody, Sciences Rhetoric The transposition of letters, syllables or sounds within a word, such as in ask as /æks/.
2
Chemistry, Inorganic chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences The double decomposition of inorganic salts.
3
Chemistry, Natural sciences, Organic chemistry, Physical sciences The breaking and reforming of double bonds in olefins in which substituent groups are swapped.
- Derived terms
- antimetathesis, crossmetathesis, olefin metathesis, quantitative metathesis, self-metathesis
- Related terms
- metathetic, metathesize, spoonerism