◌́

character

Used on loan words to mark e's (mostly final) that are pronounced rather than silent, e.g. animé, café, exposé, maté, resumé, paté, saké; Malé, Pokémon. (Cf. expose, mate, resume, pate, sake, male.)

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Meanings

character
  1. diacriticUsed on loan words to mark e's (mostly final) that are pronounced rather than silent, e.g. animé, café, exposé, maté, resumé, paté, saké; Malé, Pokémon. (Cf. expose, mate, resume, pate, sake, male.)
  2. diacritichuman sciencesUsed in glossaries, such as for Latinate technical terms or Classical names, to mark stressed syllables when full pronunciations are not given, as the pronunciation is largely predictable once stress-placement is known.
  3. diacriticrarecommunicationsUsed to show an unexpectedly stressed syllable, or where the choice of stress is metrically important, e.g. idiosyncratic caléndar; noun rébel as opposed to verb rebél; áll trádes as a spondee rather than iamb.
  4. alternativediacriticAlternative form of ◌̀.
  5. diacriticobsoleteUsed in the digraph ⟨ée⟩.

    1582, Stephen Batman (translator), Batman vppon Bartholome his booke De proprietatibus rerum, London: Thomas East, Book 5, Chapter 26, “Of the shoulders,” The twisted forkes be néedfull to binde the shoulders, and to depart them from the breast.

    5 more examples

    And in his wound the seared blood did make a gréeuous sound, As when a peece of stéele red who tane vp with tongs is drownd In water by the smith, it spirts and hisseth in the trowgh.

    1567, Ovid, “The Twelfth Booke”, in Arthur Golding, transl., The XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis, […], London: […] Willyam Seres […], →OCLC, folio 152, recto

    1577, William Harrison, The Description of England in Holinshed’s Chronicles, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 12 “Of venemous beastes &c.,” Our hony alſo is taken and reputed to be the beſt bycauſe it is harder, better wrought & clenlyer veſſelled vp, thẽ that which cõmeth from beyond the ſea, where they ſtampe and ſtraine their combes, Bées, & young Blowinges altogither into the ſtuffe, as I haue béene informed.

    The King ſent to the Londoners requeſting to borrowe of them one thouſande pounde, whiche they ſtoutely denyed, and alſo euil entreated, bette and néere hand ſlew a certain Lumbard that woulde haue lent the King the ſayde ſumme, which when the King heard he was maruellouſly angried, and calling togither almoſt all the nobles of the lande, hée opened to them the malitiouſneſſe of the Londoners, and cõplayned of theyr preſumption, the whyche noble men gaue counſell, that their inſolencie ſhoulde with ſpéede be oppreſſed, and theyr pride abated.

    1580, Iohn Stow (collector), The Chronicles of England, from Brute vnto This Present Yeare of Christ 1580., London: […] Ralphe Newberie, […], page 512

    The raueled cheat therfore is generallie ſo made that out of one buſhell of meale, after two and twentie pounds of bran be ſifted and taken from it (wherevnto they ad the gurgeons that riſe from the manchet) they make thirtie cast, euerie lofe weighing eightéene ounces into the ouen and ſixteene ounces out[…]

    1587, Raphaell Holinshed, Iohn Hooker, “Of the food and diet of the Engliſh”, in The firſt and ſecond volumes of Chronicles […] , volume I, London: Henry Denham, page 169

    I take it néedles, and booteles to make ouer déepe, or ſcrupulous enquiry into euery moſt auncient, and obſolete antiquitie: I preſuppoſe it ſufficient to peruſe, and examine the moſt famous, and moſt autentique ſuppoſed propheſies, that haue curranteſt paſſage, and repaſſage in moſt mouthes, and bookes: conſidering how eaſily euerie indifferent man may proportionably make eſtimation of the woorſe, by the better, and ratably value the one by the other.

    1588, John Harvey, A Discoursive Probleme concerning Prophesies, how far they are to be valued or credited, page 8
  6. diacriticRetained in foreign loan words (mostly French é), particularly when unassimilated

    (non-final) ancien régime, coup d'état, décor, déjà vu, détente, élite, résumé, séance.

    1 more example

    (final) attaché, blasé, canapé, cliché, communiqué, entrée, mêlée, fiancé, fiancée, papier-mâché, passé, pâté, plié, résumé, risqué, naïveté, toupée, touché, as well as café, exposé above.

Cite this entry
APA

◌́. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/%E2%97%8C%CC%81

MLA

“◌́.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/%E2%97%8C%CC%81. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “◌́,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/%E2%97%8C%CC%81.

Source: ◌́ on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.