Definition of Syllable

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Syllable

An elementary sound, or a combination of elementary sounds, uttered together, or with a single effort or impulse of the voice, and constituting a word or a part of a word. In other terms, it is a vowel or a diphtong, either by itself or flanked by one or more consonants, the whole produced by a single impulse or utterance. One of the liquids, l, m, n, may fill the place of a vowel in a syllable. Adjoining syllables in a word or phrase need not to be marked off by a pause, but only by such an abatement and renewal, or reenforcement, of the stress as to give the feeling of separate impulses. See Guide to Pronunciation, /275.

In writing and printing, a part of a word, separated from the rest, and capable of being pronounced by a single impulse of the voice. It may or may not correspond to a syllable in the spoken language.

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

To pronounce the syllables of; to utter; to articulate.

Related Definitions:

Abatement, Adjoining, An, And, Anything, Articulate, As, Be, Being, But, By, Capable, Combination, Concise, Constituting, Correspond, Discourse, Effort, Either, Elementary, Feeling, Fill, Flanked, From, Give, Guide, Impulse, In, Is, It, Itself, Language, Marked, May, More, Need, Not, Of, Off, One, Only, Or, Other, Part, Particle, Pause, Phrase, Place, Printing, Produced, Pronounce, Pronounced, Pronunciation, Reenforcement, Renewal, Rest, See, Sentence, Separate, Separated, Short, Single, Small, Sound, Spoken, Stress, Such, Syllable, The, To, Together, Utter, Utterance, Uttered, Voice, Vowel, Whole, With, Word, Writing

Syllable Quotations

To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.
Victor Hugo

The relation of repetitions for learning and for repeating English stanzas needs no amplification. These were learned by heart on the first day with less than half of the repetitions necessary for the shortest of the syllable series.
Hermann Ebbinghaus

The aim of the tests carried on with these syllable series was, by means of repeated audible perusal of the separate series, to so impress them that immediately afterward they could voluntarily be reproduced.
Hermann Ebbinghaus

There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true inflections of spoken English, but with not one recognizable syllable.
Annie Dillard

I try to write conversationally; I try to write like people speak and put the emphasis on the right syllable.
Don Henley

It is important that the audience should understand every syllable of every word, for only then can they grasp the meaning of the song.
Kate Smith

With network shows, writers can be so protective of every syllable.
Michael Shanks

Syllable Translations

syllable in Dutch is lettergreep, syllabe
syllable in French is syllabe
syllable in German is Silbe
syllable in Italian is sillaba
syllable in Swedish is stavelse

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