syllable
an uninterrupted segment of speech consisting of a vowel sound, a diphthong, or a syllabic consonant, with or without preceding or following consonant sounds: “Eye,” “sty,” “act,” and “should” are English words of one syllable. “Eyelet,” “stifle,” “enact,” and “shouldn't” are two-syllable words.
one or more written letters or characters representing more or less exactly such an element of speech.
the slightest portion or amount of speech or writing; the least mention: Do not breathe a syllable of all this.
to utter in syllables; articulate.
to represent by syllables.
to utter syllables; speak.
Origin of syllable
1Grammar notes for syllable
Breaking a written word into syllables—as in a dictionary entry, where the purpose is to clarify the structure of the word and assist in understanding and pronunciation, or in a book, for the purpose of end-of-line hyphenation—involves additional considerations. While based primarily on sound, the syllable divisions in spelled-out forms are also influenced by long-established spelling conventions, the etymology of the word, and the lack of an exact correspondence between spelling and pronunciation. For example, in writing, multisyllabic words with double consonants are conventionally divided between the consonants, even though the consonant is pronounced only once: sudden is divided as sud·den, though pronounced suddn. But the word adding —formed by combining the word add with the suffix -ing, is divided as add·ing to show its constituent parts. And a word like exact (pronounced igzakt) cannot be divided purely phonetically, because the letter x itself would have to be split; it is traditionally divided as ex·act. This means that even when divisions in the spelled form and the pronunciation do not match, they are both correct.
Other words from syllable
- half-syl·la·bled, adjective
- un·syl·la·bled, adjective
Words Nearby syllable
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use syllable in a sentence
“Massachusetts,” my 4-year-old said, articulating every syllable as we crossed the state line.
In Massachusetts, a seacoast city that feels like home | Hannah Selinger | August 26, 2021 | Washington PostCompared with some songbirds, “this ability to produce adultlike syllables seems to happen much quicker in bats,” she says, noting an abrupt rise in the number of adultlike syllables early in babbling.
These baby greater sac-winged bats babble to learn their mating songs | Jonathan Lambert | August 19, 2021 | Science NewsIt’s fun to see people, looking up, counting the syllables, Pisarra said.
Drew Pisarra’s ‘dangerously funny and queerly inventive brain’ | Kathi Wolfe | July 23, 2021 | Washington BladeHis videos typically began selfie-style, with an enthusiastic “Good morning, TikTok family,” Doubman stretching out the greeting’s syllables before revealing the day’s landscape.
Meet the TikTokers Upending Outdoor Influencer Culture | Terry Nguyen | June 10, 2021 | Outside OnlineCoe delivered each line with a twang-less, overpronounced clarity, as if he were being paid by the syllable.
Tyler Mahan Coe created the ‘War and Peace’ of country music podcasts. Surrender to it. | Geoff Edgers | April 15, 2021 | Washington Post
The extending out of one syllable is a great songwriting device.
The tone of this syllable swooped up briefly, and then down.
Forty thousand people were on their feet singing his name in a two-syllable mantra.
The Stacks: The True Greatness of Muhammad Ali | Peter Richmond | February 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAt the first syllable Obama uttered in its favor, the Republicans practically to a person would oppose it.
Things that sound almost like words but are just a syllable or two off.
Allcraft winced, as every syllable made known the speaker's actual strength—his own dependence and utter weakness.
He placed the paper on the table, and, ere he read a syllable, he laboured to compose himself.
He spoke with an animation and earnestness that gave an exaggerated importance to every syllable he uttered.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories | Kate ChopinIn some English schools the first syllable in “panis” sounds “pan,” in others “pain.”
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)David had replied, in that short tone of self-sufficiency which conveys so much more than the syllable would seem to warrant.
The Garret and the Garden | R.M. Ballantyne
British Dictionary definitions for syllable
/ (ˈsɪləbəl) /
a combination or set of one or more units of sound in a language that must consist of a sonorous element (a sonant or vowel) and may or may not contain less sonorous elements (consonants or semivowels) flanking it on either or both sides: for example "paper" has two syllables: See also open (def. 34b), closed (def. 6a)
(in the writing systems of certain languages, esp ancient ones) a symbol or set of symbols standing for a syllable
the least mention in speech or print: don't breathe a syllable of it
in words of one syllable simply; bluntly
to pronounce syllables of (a text); articulate
(tr) to write down in syllables
Origin of syllable
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for syllable
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Other Idioms and Phrases with syllable
see words of one syllable.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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