æ

æ [ē, i, e]

n.

〚L aetatis〛

1. a ligature used to represent a diphthong in some Latin words, equivalent to ai in Greek, usually written æ or replaced by e in modern spelling of derived English words, as in demon (daemon), ether (aether), etc. and pronounced (ē, i, or e)

2. an Old English ligature representing a low front unrounded vowel like that in Modern English hat: see ASH² (n. 3)

3. a character in the International Phonetic Alphabet and some other transcription systems, representing this low front unrounded vowel

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