monosyllable

American  

[mon-uh-sil-uh-buhl] / ˈmɒn əˌsɪl ə bəl /

noun

1. a word of one syllable, as yes or no.

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monosyllable British  

/ ˈmɒnəˌsɪləbəl /

noun

1. a word of one syllable, esp one used as a sentence

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Other Word Forms

• monosyllabism
  noun

Etymology

Origin of monosyllable

First recorded in 1525–35; mono- + syllable

Explanation

A monosyllable is a word that has only one syllable, or beat of sound. The sentence, "A good friend is hard to find, but a good dog is not," contains only monosyllables. A single syllable of speech has one vowel sound, which could be written with two letters — like ea sometimes makes the long e sound — and may have consonants around it. More than half of English words are monosyllables, meaning they have just one vowel sound. Most basic words are monosyllables, like a, the, he, and she. But longer words can be monosyllables, too: The nine-letter word stretched is a monosyllable (it's pronounced /strecht/).

Example Sentences

These Monosyllables add amh to the Root:— Imper.

From Elements of Gaelic Grammar by Stewart, Alexander

Monosyllables ending in silent e usually contain a long vowel sound, which becomes short when the final e is dropped.

From Business English A Practice Book by Buhlig, Rose

These Monosyllables add tuinn or tinn to the Root:— Bean, touch, Beantuinn.

From Elements of Gaelic Grammar by Stewart, Alexander

For the same Reason he introduces the most solemn and most important Speech in the Æneid, with three Monosyllables, which causes great Delay in the Speaker, and gives great Majesty to the Speech.

From Letters Concerning Poetical Translations And Virgil's and Milton's Arts of Verse, &c. by Benson, William

Monosyllables and words accented on the final syllable, if they end in one consonant preceded by a single vowel, double the consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel.

From The Century Handbook of Writing by Greever, Garland