[ noun ] a unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme <noun.communication> the word `pocket' has two syllables
Syllable \Syl"la*ble\, n. [OE. sillable, OF. sillabe, F. syllabe, L. syllaba, Gr. ? that which is held together, several letters taken together so as to form one sound, a syllable, fr. ? to take together; ? with + ? to take; cf. Skr. labh, rabh. Cf. {Lemma}, {Dilemma}.] 1. 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 re["e]nforcement, of the stress as to give the feeling of separate impulses. See Guide to Pronunciation, [sect]275.
2. 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.
Withouten vice [i. e. mistake] of syllable or letter. --Chaucer.
3. A small part of a sentence or discourse; anything concise or short; a particle.
Before any syllable of the law of God was written. --Hooker.
Who dare speak One syllable against him? --Shak.
Syllable \Syl"la*ble\, v. t. To pronounce the syllables of; to utter; to articulate. --Milton.
He didn't speak a syllable of English and wouldn't have understood the words and phrases of capitalism even if he did.
"I told defense lawyers in words of one syllable, not once or twice, but several times, that the issue of disclosure was very important to the FDIC," he said.
As a Loukides, I married a Michaelides, thereby sentencing a son and two daughters to another generation of syllable slaughter in the classroom.
"Don't come on my porch at my house and ask me why don't I leave," says Loretta Hebert, her voice rising with every syllable.
Sorrell, who pronounces his name with the accent on the first syllable, was born on Valentine's Day in 1945.