noun
- Plural of haplology; instances of the omission or loss of one or more sounds or syllables in a word, especially when similar or identical sounds occur in sequence.
Usage: linguistics; technical term
Examples
- The word 'library' is sometimes pronounced as 'libary,' an example of haplologies in casual speech.
- Linguists study haplologies to understand how languages evolve and change over time.
- Several haplologies occur in English when speakers reduce repeated consonant clusters.
- The reduction of 'probably' to 'probly' represents one of the common haplologies in informal English.