the leaving out of a sound or syllable when speaking

The leaving out of a sound or syllable when speaking is called elision.

Core term

• Elision is the omission of one or more sounds or even a whole syllable in a word or phrase during speech, often to make pronunciation quicker or smoother.

• It can affect vowels, consonants, or entire syllables, and is very common in everyday, casual speech in many languages.

Simple examples

• Saying “famly” instead of “family” or “intresting” instead of “interesting” involves dropping a syllable, which is a form of elision.

• Forms like “gonna” (for “going to”) or “woulda” (for “would have”) also show elision, where certain sounds are omitted to speed up speech.

Related technical note

• When the specifically middle unstressed vowel or syllable is dropped (as in “cam-ra” for “camera”), some linguists also use the more specific term syncope , but this is just one subtype of elision.

In everyday language and in most dictionaries, elision is the standard answer for “the leaving out of a sound or syllable when speaking.”