In linguistics, a change in the sound of a word's root, often seen across different forms of the same word like 'sing, sang, sung.'
From Greek apo- (away) and phone (sound), literally 'away from sound.' This linguistic term describes how vowels and consonants shift within related words.
Apophonia is what makes English verbs so tricky—the fact that 'go' becomes 'went' instead of 'goed' is apophonia! Germanic languages are packed with these sound changes, which is why English is harder to learn than languages with more regular patterns.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.