SYLLABLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does syllable mean? 

• SYLLABLE (noun)
  The noun SYLLABLE has 1 sense:

1. a unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme

  Familiarity information: SYLLABLE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SYLLABLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

the word 'pocket' has two syllables

Hypernyms ("syllable" is a kind of...):

language unit; linguistic unit (one of the natural units into which linguistic messages can be analyzed)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "syllable"):

ultima (the last syllable in a word)

penult; penultima; penultimate (the next to last syllable in a word)

antepenult; antepenultima; antepenultimate (the 3rd syllable of a word counting back from the end)

reduplication (the syllable added in a reduplicated word form)

solfa syllable (one of the names for notes of a musical scale in solmization)

Holonyms ("syllable" is a part of...):

word (a unit of language that native speakers can identify)

Derivation:

syllabic (consisting of a syllable or syllables)

syllabic (of or relating to syllables)

syllabicate; syllabify (divide into syllables)

syllabize (utter with distinct articulation of each syllable)

syllabize (divide into syllables)

 Context examples 

I never spoke a syllable about it to Sir Thomas, nor he to me.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Emma amused herself by protesting that it was very extraordinary, indeed, and that she had not a syllable to say for him.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

“That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline,” cried her brother, “because he does not write with ease. He studies too much for words of four syllables. Do not you, Darcy?”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

And, as I ever wish to be believed, I solemnly protest that no syllable of such a nature ever passed between us.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

—a syllable that comes out of my lips.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The dinner-bell rang, and suddenly away he bolted, without another syllable: I saw him no more during the day, and was off before he had risen in the morning.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I will take my oath he never dropt a syllable of being tired of her, or of wishing to marry Miss Morton, or any thing like it.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Stuttering is characterized by pauses and repeated or prolonged sounds, syllables or words, which disrupt the normal flow of speech.

(Study in mice identifies type of brain cell involved in stuttering, National Institutes of Health)

That was the word the man uttered, and of which his son only caught the last two syllables.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Cal-ee-forn-ee-yeh," he mumbled twice and thrice, listening intently to the sound of the syllables as they fell from his lips. He nodded his head in confirmation.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)