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
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use syllable in a sentence
The more syllables he puts into my name, the worse his physical condition.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTCadets mimicked his commands, which he issued in drawn-out syllables in his high-pitched, mountain-inflected voice.
Stonewall Jackson, VMI’s Most Embattled Professor | S. C. Gwynne | November 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTDI taught even 4-year-olds to understand sounds, syllables, and rhyming.
As ominous as all those syllables sound when put together, hydrochlorothiazide will not slow your heart.
Scandal’s Finale Featured One of the Most Preposterous TV Deaths Ever | Russell Saunders | April 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIts opening line has nine syllables, its closing line has 13, and a landay ends with one of two sounds: “–ma” or “–na.”
Beauty and Subversion in the Secret Poems of Afghan Women | Daniel Bosch | April 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
The initial syllables of Ulysses and of Rutherford make an inclusion by sound.
Assimilative Memory | Marcus Dwight Larrowe (AKA Prof. A. Loisette)All badly insert pure (dissyllabic) before flat; but smothe has two syllables.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 (of 7) -- Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems | Geoffrey ChaucerFor he understood at last to whom it referred and the meaning that lay between its great syllables.
Three More John Silence Stories | Algernon BlackwoodIf the reader prefers to keep eleven (or twelve) syllables in this line, I am sorry for him.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 (of 7) -- Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems | Geoffrey ChaucerUnfortunately, all the scribes have repeated it, to the ruin of the metre; for the line then contains two syllables too many.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 (of 7) -- Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems | Geoffrey Chaucer
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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