Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

wh-movement

/ˌdʌbəlju ˈeɪtʃ ˌmuvmənt/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.72 in modern English

Syllables
wh--move-ment
IPA
/ˌdʌbəlju ˈeɪtʃ ˌmuvmənt/
23
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

a syntactic phenomenon found in many languages around the world, in which interrogative words (sometimes called wh-words) or phrases show a special word order. Unlike ordinary phrases, such wh-words appear at the beginning of an interrogative clause.

Countable; Uncountable

Etymology

Most English interrogative words start with wh-, for example, who, whom, whose, what, which, when, where, why, etc. (though how is an exception).

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /ˌdʌbəlju ˈeɪtʃ ˌmuvmənt/

Usage

Inflected Forms

wh-movements (plural)

Phrases

wh-in-situ wh-island wh-word parasitic gap

Frequently Paired Words

wh-in-situ wh-island wh-word parasitic gap

Synonyms

wh-extraction wh-fronting

Questions

How do you pronounce wh-movement?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˌdʌbəlju ˈeɪtʃ ˌmuvmənt/.
What does wh-movement mean?
a syntactic phenomenon found in many languages around the world, in which interrogative words (sometimes called wh-words) or phrases show a special word order. Unlike ordinary phrases, such wh-words appear at the beginning of an interrogative clause.
Where does wh-movement come from?
Most English interrogative words start with wh-, for example, who, whom, whose, what, which, when, where, why, etc. (though how is an exception).

How to pronounce wh-movement

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “wh-movement”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˌdʌbəlju ˈeɪtʃ ˌmuvmənt/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “wh-movement”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “wh-movement” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.