ce·dil·la (s?-d?l??)n. A mark ( ¸ ) placed beneath the letter c, as in the spelling of the French word garçon, to indicate that the letter is to be pronounced (s).[Obsolete Spanish, diminutive of ceda, the letter z (so called because a small z was formerly written after a c, and later below it, to indicate that the normal hard c was to be pronounced as a sibilant, like s or z), from Late Latin z?ta, zeta, from Greek; see zeta.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.cedilla (s??d?l?) n (Phonetics & Phonology) a character ( ¸ ) placed underneath a c before a, o, or u, esp in French, Portuguese, or Catalan, denoting that it is to be pronounced (s), not (k). The same character is used in the scripts of other languages, as in Turkish under s[C16: from Spanish: little z, from ceda zed, from Late Latin zeta; a small z was originally written after c in Spanish, to indicate a sibilant]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014ce?dil?la (s??d?l ?) n., pl. -las. a mark (¸) placed under a letter to indicate its pronunciation, as under c in French or Portuguese to indicate that it is pronounced (s) rather than (k), as in façade. [1590?1600;