verb
- past tense of metathesise/metathesize: to undergo or cause to undergo metathesis (a transposition of sounds, letters, or syllables within a word or between words)
Usage: linguistics; chemistry
Examples
- The word 'ask' metathesized from an earlier form with different sound order.
- In chemistry, the compound metathesized when exposed to the catalyst.
- Linguists noted that the consonants metathesized over centuries of language evolution.
- The reaction metathesized the molecular structure into a new configuration.
- Historical sound changes metathesized many words in the Romance languages.