Meanings
eth1
nouneth (plural eths)
- A letter (capital Ð, small ð) introduced into Old English to represent its dental fricative, then not distinguished from the letter thorn, no longer used in English but still in modern use in Icelandic, the IPA and other phonetic alphabets to represent the voiced dental fricative "th" sound as in the English word then. The letter is also used in Faroese, but is generally silent in that language.
In Old English manuscripts thorn and eth did not have different phonetic values but were used positionally[.]
1985, Robert Burchfield, The English Language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 175
Eth2
proper noun
- A short form of the female given name Ethel.
ETH3
noun
- UKabbreviationinitialismrail transportInitialism of electric train heat/heating.
Synonyms: head end power
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
The sound /ɛ/ followed by the sound of the letter, by analogy with other letter names, such as those of f, l, and m.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian ед
- ед (ed)letter
German Eth
- Ethletter
Icelandic eð
- eðletter
Norwegian edd
- eddletter
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with eth
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
eth. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eth
MLA
“eth.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eth. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “eth,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eth.
Source: eth on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.