syllable

American  

[sil-uh-buhl] / ˈsɪl ə bəl /

noun

syllables plural

1. 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.

2. one or more written letters or characters representing more or less exactly such an element of speech.

3. the slightest portion or amount of speech or writing; the least mention.

   Do not breathe a syllable of all this.

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verb (used with object)

Chiefly Literary.

syllables, present (3rd person singular) syllabled, past participle, past syllabling present participle

1. to utter in syllables; articulate.

2. to represent by syllables.

verb (used without object)

Chiefly Literary.

syllables, present (3rd person singular) syllabled, past participle, past syllabling present participle

1. to utter syllables; speak.

syllable British  

/ ˈsɪləbəl /

noun

1. 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 closed

2. (in the writing systems of certain languages, esp ancient ones) a symbol or set of symbols standing for a syllable

3. the least mention in speech or print

   don't breathe a syllable of it

4. simply; bluntly

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verb

1. to pronounce syllables of (a text); articulate

2. (tr) to write down in syllables

syllable Cultural  

1. A basic unit of speech generally containing only one vowel sound. The word basic contains two syllables (ba-sic). The word generally contains four (gen-er-al-ly). (See hyphen.)

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syllable Idioms  

1. see words of one syllable.

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Grammar

Spoken English is very flexible in its syllable structure. A vowel sound can constitute a syllable by itself—like the e in unequal (un·e·qual) —or can be preceded by up to three consonant sounds (as in strong or splint ) and followed by up to four consonant sounds, as in tempts or sixths (which ends with the sounds k+s+th+s). But the English sound system is not without rules. Some combinations of consonant sounds, like p+k, can never occur within a syllable, and others can occur only at one end or the other. For example, the combination s+f can occur at the beginning of a syllable (as in sphere ) but not at the end, while the reverse sequence f+s can occur at the end (as in laughs ) but not at the beginning. The language does stretch occasionally to accommodate borrowings from other languages, as for words like schlep and tsar that can be said with an initial consonant cluster not native to English. And in a broad sense, even certain meaningful utterances composed exclusively of consonant sounds can be regarded as syllables. Examples include shh (urging silence) and psst (used to attract someone’s attention). 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 suddn. 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 igzakt) 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 Word Forms

Derived Forms

• half-syllabled
  adjective
• unsyllabled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• syllables
  plural

Participles

• syllabling
  present
• syllabled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• syllable
  simple
• syllables
  simple
• have syllabled
  perfect
• has syllabled
  perfect
• am syllabling
  progressive
• are syllabling
  progressive
• is syllabling
  progressive
• have been syllabling
  perfect progressive
• has been syllabling
  perfect progressive

Past

• syllabled
  simple
• had syllabled
  perfect
• was syllabling
  progressive
• were syllabling
  progressive
• had been syllabling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will syllable
  simple
• will have syllabled
  perfect
• will be syllabling
  progressive
• will have been syllabling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of syllable

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English sillable, from Anglo-French; Middle French sillabe, from Latin syllaba, from Greek syllabḗ, equivalent to syl- prefix meaning “with, together” ( see syl-) + lab- (base of lambánein “to take”) + -ē noun suffix

Explanation

A syllable can be made up of just a vowel — "a" can be a syllable — or a vowel and one or more consonants — "skip" is one syllable, but three sounds, or phonemes: sk-i-p. When you're figuring out how many syllables a word has, you have to listen to how it's pronounced, not look at the spelling. Household is two syllables — which you'll hear when you say the word — even though it's got four vowels. Elephant is three syllables, and hippopotamus is five. You can also use syllable for the tiniest bits of language: "I loved every syllable of your speech," or "Please don't repeat a syllable of what I told you."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

syllable syllables syllabled syllabling

"We went through each word and each syllable to make sure that the pronunciation was perfect for Bilquis," she said.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

Shortly before he took office in January 2025, the Chinese government and official media began using a different Chinese character for "lu" to represent the first syllable in his surname.

From Barron's ● May 12, 2026

And with that single syllable, I had cancer.

From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2026

In healthy participants, brain activity dropped when the imagined syllable matched the sound played through the headphones.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 23, 2026

Not a syllable had ever reached her of Miss Darcy’s meditated elopement.

From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

A radical departure in wording could lead Fed watchers to puzzle even more over what few syllables are uttered.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026

They identified 100 distinct "behavioral syllables," which are short, repeating actions that form the basic elements of how the fish move and rest.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 2026

News channel YTN lavished praise on Kang's "heartfelt message to Korea", referring to the movie by its affectionate shorthand "Kedehun", a combination of the title's first three syllables.

From Barron's ● Mar. 16, 2026

The technique is used in South Indian Carnatic - or classical - music, and involves repeating certain syllables and phrases to create a drum-like sound.

From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2026

The day Rose left I had learned how to write "family" in syllables using ash on a creamy curl of birch bark.

From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline

“Poetry’s trash, mere clouds of words, comfort to the hopeless. But this is no cloud, no syllabled phantom that stands here shaking its sword at you.”

From "Grendel" by John Gardner

Yea, hath my heart become for Love a lyre, And he hath syllabled thy name, and I Fill in each silence with a song; aspire To rival in my rapture Euterpe.

From His Lady of the Sonnets by Norwood, Robert W.

I found that the two notes which syllabled themselves to my ear as "see-e he-e-re!" were prefaced by a low, staccato utterance like "quick!" and all were on the same note of the musical scale.

From Upon The Tree-Tops by Miller, Olive Thorne

It was thus with the Reader when he syllabled, with watering lips, guess after guess at the half-opened basket.

From Charles Dickens as a Reader by Kent, Charles Foster

Truth, in whatever tongue it be syllabled, does not die.

From Sir Jasper Carew His Life and Experience by Lever, Charles James

The murmur of the tea-urn would seem to fashion itself into airy accents, syllabling, "Mary, thy Blodgett is here!"

From Hawthorne and His Circle by Hawthorne, Julian

Music without the syllabling of words—yet breathing worship, and with the spirit of piety filling all the Night-Heavens.

From Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 by Wilson, John

Here were also several western robins, one of which saluted me with a cheerful carol, whose tone and syllabling were exactly like those of the merry redbreast of our Eastern States.

From Birds of the Rockies by Keyser, Leander S. (Leander Sylvester)

She added reasons in whose syllabling Napier heard Julian's voice.

From The Messenger by Robins, Elizabeth

Men heard Strange voices syllabling with accents strange, By travellers breathed who, startled, paused and feared Seeing the smoke of habitations curled Above this hollow of an unrumoured world.

From Poems New and Old by Freeman, John