Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A symbol ( ¯ ) placed over a vowel to show that it has a long sound.
  • noun The horizontal mark ( ¯ ) used to indicate a stressed or long syllable in a foot of verse.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In grammar, a short horizontal line placed over a vowel to show that it is long in quantity, or, as in English, has a “long” sojnd: opposed to the breve, or mark of a short vowel.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Pron.) A short, straight, horizontal mark [-], placed over vowels to denote that they are to be pronounced with a long sound; as, ā, in dāme; ē, in sēam, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun orthography A short, straight, horizontal diacritical mark (¯) placed over any of various letters. It usually is used to indicate that the pronunciation of the vowel is long, in Mandarin pinyin (Chinese), it indicates the first tone, e.g. chūzūchē.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a diacritical mark (-) placed above a vowel to indicate a long sound

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek makron, from neuter of makros, long; see māk- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Ancient Greek μακρόν (makron), neuter form of μακρός (makros, "long") (English macro-).

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Examples

  • Now I know that the long mark is called a macron and the short mark is called a breve.

    Archive 2009-09-01 2009

  • For years, though, the dude studying the macron was my pet example of scholarship's willful obscurity; I'm pretty sure I trotted out that story more than once when explaining why I didn't think I should go to grad school.

    Archive 2008-04-01 Flavia 2008

  • For years, though, the dude studying the macron was my pet example of scholarship's willful obscurity; I'm pretty sure I trotted out that story more than once when explaining why I didn't think I should go to grad school.

    Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008

  • These are differentiated in the beginner Latin-Reader textbooks using a 'macron' which is a bar that goes over the long characters.

    The Code Project Latest Articles 2009

  • My favorite dessert is the coconut only macaroon, and the other is hot chocolate with a dark chocolate French macron.

    PROFILED: Midtown Lunch’er “Nantini” | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2008

  • An analysis of the use of the macron in Greek texts of a certain period.

    Ferule & Fescue Flavia 2008

  • I also corrected a missing macron in Akkadian muḫaddū which is important because the length is a sign of a reduction of a weak consonant.

    Drinking in more of the drunk-joy connection 2008

  • I also corrected a missing macron in Akkadian muḫaddū which is important because the length is a sign of a reduction of a weak consonant.

    Archive 2008-02-01 2008

  • An analysis of the use of the macron in Greek texts of a certain period.

    Archive 2008-04-01 Flavia 2008

  • Shokonsha の第一音節、Shinto の第二音節、Togo は二つの音節とも o に macron が附されてゐるが入力の便宜上省いた。

    Yasukuni: Why the Emperor Stopped Going 2006

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