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syllabary

[sil-uh-ber-ee]
See more synonyms for syllabary on Thesaurus.com
noun, plural syl·la·bar·ies.
  1. a list or catalog of syllables.
  2. a set of written symbols, each of which represents a syllable, used to write a given language: the Japanese syllabary.
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Origin of syllabary

From the New Latin word syllabārium, dating back to 1580–90. See syllable, -ary
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

fundamentalsmorphemeselementssyllabarysymbolsideographrunecharactersphonemespictograph

Examples from the Web for syllabary

Historical Examples

  • Kana signifies the Japanese syllabary,—the characters with which the language is written.

    Shadowings

    Lafcadio Hearn

  • This syllabary and that invented for the Cherokees by Guess, are the only two in the world.

    The Progress of Ethnology

    John Russell Bartlett

  • A syllabary describes the god as a 'raging' deity, a description that suggests solar functions.

  • There are about 400 of these complex syllabic signs in the syllabary, instead of 26 letters as in English.

  • This syllabary enabled the Japanese to express the sounds of their vernacular without difficulty.

    The Progress of Ethnology

    John Russell Bartlett

British Dictionary definitions for syllabary

syllabary

noun plural -baries
  1. a table or list of syllables
  2. a set of symbols used in certain writing systems, such as one used for Japanese, in which each symbol represents a spoken syllable
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Word Origin

C16: from New Latin syllabārium, from Latin syllaba syllable
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012