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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

syllable.

A unit of human speech which often forms words corresponding to one opening of the mouth; a vowel and its surrounding consonants.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsɪl.ə.bəl/Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈsɪl.ə.bɫ̩]Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. A unit of human speech which often forms words corresponding to one opening of the mouth; a vowel and its surrounding consonants.

  2. The written representation of a given pronounced syllable.

  3. A small part of a sentence or discourse; anything concise or short; a particle.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English syllable, sillable, syllabylle, sylabul, from Anglo-Norman sillable, from Old French sillebe, from Latin syllaba, from Ancient Greek συλλαβή (sullabḗ), from συλλαμβάνω (sullambánō, “to gather together”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + λαμβάνω (lambánō, “to take”).

verb/ˈsɪl.ə.bəl/Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈsɪl.ə.bɫ̩]Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. To utter in syllables.

    poetic · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English syllable, sillable, syllabylle, sylabul, from Anglo-Norman sillable, from Old French sillebe, from Latin syllaba, from Ancient Greek συλλαβή (sullabḗ), from συλλαμβάνω (sullambánō, “to gather together”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + λαμβάνω (lambánō, “to take”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.