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

Mr. Brook connects such disparate elements in conversation, linking them all to his favorite monosyllable.

From New York Times • Sep. 18, 2019

The OED recognises thing in this sense, but not commodity, and tragically not monosyllable either.

From The Guardian • Mar. 25, 2016

As Nicolson argues, "face" is a simple, plain English monosyllable, but it also has a resonant double meaning.

From The Guardian • Feb. 19, 2011

Last month, when he rose at his desk to introduce a bill, he was able to utter only the monosyllable, "A. . .," before he lapsed into agonizing silence.

From Time Magazine Archive

To overcome the difficulty of getting past that monosyllable, I took it from her, and said, repeating it with emphasis, “Well! Then, that is why it makes me wretched.”

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens