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⟨re⟩
⟨re⟩ is a spelling pattern which can be a vowel digraph, and which occurs in English consisting of R and E, and typically codes for the 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵ᴇʀ vowel. This mainly occurs in British English spelling, in words derived from French.
Such words with this include:
- cadre, calibre, centre, euchre, genre, metre, reconnoitre, lucre, macabre, manoeuvre, maigre, oeuvre, sombre, sucre, sempre, timbre, theatre, etc.
⟨re⟩ must be preceded by a consonant.
In American English spelling, Noah Webster “improved” some of these spellings to change them to ⟨er⟩, especially caliber, center, meter, somber, theater and the bizarre ''maneuver.
At the end of verbs, the e is dropped before suffixes such as -ing, e.g. centring, or calibration, so it mutates to ⟨r⟩.
Some words are pronounced /rə/. In macabre it can be silent. Those with knowledge of French may pronounce French-derived words more closely to the original pronunciation.
Note that padre is /pɑ:dreɪ/ and doesn’t rhyme with cadre.
⟨re⟩ also occurs at the beginning of words, or syllables, when it’s better analysed as ⟨r⟩ + ⟨e⟩, e.g. ''relax, review, prerequisite, etc, so doesn’t include this digraph.