What is "epenthesis"

Epenthesis \E*pen"the*sis\, n.; pl. Epentheses. [L., fr. Gr. ?; 'epi` + ? to put or set in.] (Gram.) The insertion of a letter or a sound in the body of a word; as, the b in ``nimble'' from AS. n[=e]mol.

n. (context phonetics prosody English) The insertion of a phoneme, letter, or syllable into a word, usually to satisfy the phonology constraints of a language or poetic context.

1. n. the insertion of a vowel or consonant into a word to make its pronunciation easier; "the insertion of a vowel in the plural of the word `bush' is epenthesis"

2. [also: epentheses (pl)]

In phonology, epenthesis (; ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. The word epenthesis comes from epi "in addition to" and en "in" and thesis "putting". Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis (; from ; also svarabhakti from Sanskrit) for the addition of a vowel.