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Glite Dictionary
🔡 A short mark 🎵 A long note
breve

breve

9.9
A small curved mark placed over a vowel to show a short vowel sound
  • noun
  • /brɛv/
  • Specialized
translation icon : breve
  • The word 'cup' contains a short 'u', shown with a breve in phonetic notation.

Examples

  • A breve over the letter helps learners distinguish between long and short vowel sounds.

  • In phonetics, the breve indicates a short vowel sound.

  • When teaching phonics, the teacher wrote a breve over each short vowel in the words.

  • Did you see the breves used in that lesson?

  • In phonetics, a breve is used to indicate that a vowel is pronounced short, as in the word 'bit'.

  • Teachers often use a breve in their lesson plans to show how to pronounce certain vowels correctly.

  • The student learned that a breve above the vowel changes the sound from long to short.

Compounds

alla breve
  • Specialized
9.9

A way of writing music that has two strong beats in each bar

os breve
  • Specialized
9.9

A short bone like a wrist or ankle bone

Surface Forms

breve singular
breves plural

Etymology

Breve comes from the Latin word brevis 'short'. The small mark breve is put over a vowel to show the sound is short, so the origin gives an easy image to remember its meaning.