onset

Other forms of onset

plural

onsets·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about onset

What does onset mean?

onset means "the beginning or early stages". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in onset?

onset has 2 syllables: on-set. The stress falls on "on". In IPA it is /ˈɑnˌsɛt/.

What is another word for onset?

Close synonyms include oncoming, attack, onslaught, onrush. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is onset a common word?

onset is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with onset?

23 words rhyme with onset. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.