What is a syllables mean

Syllable Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

syl·​la·​ble ˈsi-lə-bəl 

1

: a unit of spoken language that is next bigger than a speech sound and consists of one or more vowel sounds alone or of a syllabic consonant alone or of either with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following

2

: one or more letters (such as syl, la, and ble) in a word (such as syl*la*ble) usually set off from the rest of the word by a centered dot or a hyphen and roughly corresponding to the syllables of spoken language and treated as helps to pronunciation or as guides to placing hyphens at the end of a line

3

: the smallest conceivable expression or unit of something : jot

4

: sol-fa syllables

syllable

2 of 2

transitive verb

1

: to give a number or arrangement of syllables to (a word or verse)

2

: to express or utter in or as if in syllables

Synonyms

Noun

• beans
• bubkes
• bupkes
• bupkus
• continental
• damn
• darn
• durn
• diddly [slang]
• diddly-squat [slang]
• doodley-squat
• doodly-squat
• fig
• ghost
• hoot
• iota
• jot
• lick
• modicum
• rap
• squat [slang]
• tittle
• whit
• whoop

See all Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus 

Example Sentences

Noun The word “doctor” has two syllables. “Doctor” is a two-syllable word. The first syllable of the word “doctor” is given stress.

Recent Examples on the Web

For LeRoy, this idea resonates with the concept of melismas, or a group of notes sung as one syllable that often express a feeling without words, that is also often used in gospel music. —Steven Vargas, Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec. 2022 His vocal phrases and guitar solos glide over the meter, lagging behind the beat or charging ahead, bringing suspense to every note and syllable. —Jody Rosen, New York Times, 17 Aug. 2022 The 75 basis-point hike is pretty much guaranteed, but Wall Street (and journalists) will be parsing every syllable from the central bank chief’s mouth for clues about how long the tightening policy will last. —Allison Morrow, CNN, 1 Nov. 2022 While announcing her debut on TikTok, the actress also low-key corrected those who have been stressing the wrong syllable of her last name. —People Staff, Peoplemag, 7 Nov. 2022 Big isn’t big at all, and, although monosyllabic refers to words of but a single syllable, monosyllabic is composed of five syllables. —Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Sep. 2022 Around him, the others in the crowd of 47,505 broke into a single-syllable chant. —Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 24 July 2022 The most obvious comparison with Joy is Vaughan herself — the rich lower register, the baroque melodic ornamentation, swoops up and down octaves from word to word, multi-note melisma stretching one-syllable words to infinity. —Jon Garelick, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Sep. 2022 Here’s the most labyrinthine but most useful spelling rule in U.S. English: Words ending in a single consonant preceded by a single vowel double the final consonant before the suffix if the accent falls on the last syllable of the root word. —Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Sep. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'syllable. ' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English, from Anglo-French sillabe, silable, from Latin syllaba, from Greek syllabē, from syllambanein to gather together, from syn- + lambanein to take — more at latch

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of syllable was in the 14th century

See more words from the same century

Dictionary Entries Near

syllabize

syllable

syllabub

See More Nearby Entries 

Cite this Entry

Style

MLAChicagoAPAMerriam-Webster

“Syllable. ” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/syllable. Accessed 12 Jan. 2023.

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Kids Definition

syllable

noun

syl·​la·​ble

ˈsil-ə-bəl

1

: a unit of spoken language that consists of one or more vowel sounds alone or with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following

2

: one or more letters (as syl, la, and ble) in a word (as syl*la*ble) usually set off from the rest of the word by a centered dot or a hyphen and treated as guides to division at the end of a line

More from Merriam-Webster on

Nglish: Translation of syllable for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of syllable for Arabic Speakers

Britannica. com: Encyclopedia article about syllable

Last Updated: 27 Dec 2022 - Updated example sentences

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Merriam-Webster unabridged

What is a syllable? | TheSchoolRun

Syllables explained for parents, including details of how primary-school children are taught to identify syllables to help them with spelling and reading and understanding poetry.

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What is a syllable?

A syllable is a single, unbroken sound of a spoken (or written) word. Syllables usually contain a vowel and accompanying consonants. Sometimes syllables are referred to as the ‘beats’ of spoken language.

Syllables differ from phonemes in that a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound; the number of syllables in a word is unrelated to the number of phonemes it contains. For example: /b/, /k/, /t/, /ch/, /sh/, /ee/, /ai/, /igh/, /ear/ are all phonemes. The word ‘chat’ is made up of three phonemes (/ch/ /a/ /t/). The word ‘light’ is made up of three phonemes (/l/ /igh/ /t/).  However, both the words ‘chat’ and ‘light’ have only one syllable each.

The number of times you hear a vowel (a, e, i , o, u) in a word is equal to the number of syllables a word has. A good way to identify syllables is to think about whether you need to change your mouth shape to say the next bit of the word / the new syllable.

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Learning about syllables in primary school

Learning about syllables is part of learning how to decode and spell words. It helps children understand the conventions of English spelling, including when to double letters and how to pronounce the vowels in words they might not have seen before.

Teachers will often get children to clap out the syllables of a word, to help them to understand the concept. (A good game to introduce syllables is to ask each child to stand up and say their name, while clapping out the syllables.)

For example:
 

• Cat   has one syllable (words of one syllable are monosyllabic)
• Water   has two syllables (wa / ter)
• Computer   has three syllables (com / pu / ter)
• Category   has four syllables (cat / e / gor / y)

Syllables in KS1 English

Children in Key Stage 1 will be expected to read words of two syllables. They may be shown how to split the words up into syllables, in order to help them sound them out. For example: if they are shown the word ‘thunder’ and get stuck, a teach may cover the second half of the word (‘der’) and ask them to just sound out the first syllable. Once they have managed this, they uncover the rest of the word and ask them to sound this out.

Children in Key Stage 1 will also learn to spell words with two syllables, at which point they will be encouraged to separate the two syllables themselves, in order to learn the spelling of the whole word.

Syllables in KS2 English

During Key Stage 2, children will progress to learning the spellings of words containing four syllables (or possibly more). They also learn about the use of syllables in poetry.

Children may learn about syllables through writing haikus. A haiku is a Japanese poem with three lines, the first containing 5 syllables, the second containing 7 syllables and the third containing 5 syllables.

This is a haiku about a frog:

Wet amphibian,
Gulps, blinks and flicks out his tongue
To snatch a black fly.

Writing haikus encourages children to think about syllables, but also to think very carefully about their word choices – it may be that one word has too many syllables and does not fit, so they have to think of a new, similar word that fits the given criteria.

Another poetic form based on syllable number is the limerick (the first, second and fifth lines rhyme and have the same number of syllables, usually eight or nine).

More like this

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• Blending sounds: teachers' tips

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• Practise two-syllable words

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• Three-syllable words

syllable - What is a syllable?

The word consists of 4 letters: first s, second l, the third o last g,

The word syllable in English letters (transliteration) - slog

• The letter with occurs 1 time. Words with 1 letter from
• The letter l occurs 1 time. Words with 1 letter l
• The letter o occurs 1 time. Words with 1 letter o
• The letter and occurs 1 time. Words with 1 letter g

Meanings of the word syllable. What is a syllable?

Syllable

syllable, a sequence of sound segments acting as a single pronunciation and structural whole, a kind of speech quantum. When chanting, a native speaker is able to divide speech into syllables: - Spar-so - than-pi-he!

Encyclopedia Around the World

A syllable is a minimal phonetic-phonological unit characterized by the greatest acoustic-articulatory fusion of its components, that is, the sounds included in it. The syllable has no connection with the formation and expression of semantic relations.

en. wikipedia.org

Syllable (background). The smallest natural unit of utterance of speech sounds, consisting of one or more sounds. One sound in the word is syllabic (syllabic), the remaining syllables are non-syllabic (non-syllabic). nine0003 Zherebilo T.V. Rhetoric: Dictionary-Reference // Lingua-universum. - 2011.- №1

syllable - 1) the old name of the writer's style ("he has a good style"). 2) A vowel sound consonant with a vowel or a group of sounds pronounced with a single exhalation (expiration).

Kvyatkovsky A.P. Poetic dictionary. - 1966

Long syllable

LONG syllable - in ancient metrics, most often a bipartite (two-part) syllable, of double duration compared to a short monopart (one-part) syllable. nine0003 Kvyatkovsky A.P. Poetic dictionary. - 1966

Short syllable

SHORT SYLLABLE - in ancient metrics, a syllable consisting of a short vowel sound or a consonant with a short vowel. K. s. in duration it is equal to one sea (“chronos protos”) or in Russian terminology - one share.

Kvyatkovsky A.P. Poetic dictionary. - 1966

Stressed syllable

STICKED syllable is one of the basic concepts of phonetics and syllabo-tonic and tonic versification. In linguistics, a stressed syllable is a syllable that is stressed, depending on the characteristics of the language ...

Literature and language / Ed. P.A. Nikolaev. - (Modern Illustrated Encyclopedia)

Stressed syllable - a certain syllable in a word, emphasized by a stronger pronunciation. In syllabo-tonic versification (see syllabo-tonic versification) a syllable tending to a strong place (see strong place) in a verse. nine0003 Dictionary of literary terms. - 2005

Chinese syllable division

In Chinese, syllables are traditionally divided into component parts in accordance with the position of the phonemes. There are several classifications of parts of a syllable, differing in depth. The initial is the initial consonant of a syllable.

en.wikipedia.org

Semi-partial syllables

SEMI-LOT SYLLABLES - in metrical verse, phonetically light syllables, which, according to the conditions of the rhythmic structure, against the background of monotone short syllables, are pronounced twice as fast and therefore are semi-long, or the shortest.

Kvyatkovsky A. P. Poetic dictionary. - 1966

Metric versification

Metric versification, quantitative versification, metrics (from other Greek μέτρον - length, length, size, lat. quantitas - quantity) - a system of versification, in which only the amount of prosodic time is fixed in the verse. Classical quantitative versification took shape in Ionia, on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, between 1000 and 750 BC. e. Here the principle "a long syllable equals two short ones" was introduced. nine0003 en.wikipedia.org

Metric versification, quantitative versification, versification based on an ordered alternation of long and short syllables. It is common in languages ​​in which the longitude and shortness of vowels have a semantic difference.

TSB. — 1969—1978

METRIC POSITIVE (from the Greek. mEtron - measure), a system of versification, where rhythmic order is based on the same time of pronunciation of lines. Poems consist of mor. A short syllable is one mora, a long one is two, less often several. Each line must contain the same number of mora. Moras are combined into measures, or stops. nine0003 Literature and language / Ed. P.A. Nikolaev. - (Modern Illustrated Encyclopedia)

Russian

Syllable/² (style).

Morphemic spelling dictionary. — 2002

Examples of the use of the word syllable

A poetic syllable filled with meaning, and a bizarre rhyme, difficult to understand.

Therefore, the stress in the word Tyson was placed not on the first syllable, but on the second. nine0003

In both cases, the stress is on the second syllable.

Emphasis on the second syllable.

• Words from the word "syllable"
• Words starting with "s"
• Words starting with "sl"
• Words ending in "g"
• Words with "og" at the end
• Words that start with "slo"
• Words starting with "syllable"
• Words ending with log
• Words ending in "syllable"

1. syllabic
2. syllabary
3. syllable stress
4. syllable
5. thallus
6. thallus
7. layered

what is it and how to count syllables in a word

Hello, dear readers of the KtoNaNovenkogo.ru blog. About 5000 years ago, an event occurred that many scientists consider the greatest and turning point in the development of writing. The ancient Sumerians (the territory of modern Iraq) began to write use syllables . And earlier, all ancient civilizations used "drawings", each of which corresponded to a certain word.

It all started with the fact that the Sumerians found it difficult to write down the names of their rulers, as well as the names of the places they visited or conquered. The fact is that these names did not have direct associations with any words, and therefore it was difficult to choose the desired hieroglyph.

The first evidence of syllabic writing was found on Sumerian tablets in the ancient city of Ur, dated to 2800 BC. According to them, scientists have established that the syllable “ti” was widely used, which among the Sumerians meant “arrow”. And also "mu" - name, and "gi" - faith. nine0003

Thanks to the Sumerians, sooner or later all peoples switched to syllabic writing . Including our distant ancestors.