SYLLABLE

syllable

(noun) a unit of spoken language larger than a phoneme; “the word ‘pocket’ has two syllables”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

syllable (plural syllables)

(linguistics) A unit of human speech that is interpreted by the listener as a single sound, although syllables usually consist of one or more vowel sounds, either alone or combined with the sound of one or more consonants; a word consists of one or more syllables.

Meronyms: onset, nucleus, coda, rime

The written representation of a given pronounced syllable.

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

Verb

syllable (third-person singular simple present syllables, present participle syllabling, simple past and past participle syllabled)

(transitive, poetic) To utter in syllables.

Source: Wiktionary

Syl"la*ble, n. Etym: [OE. sillable, OF. sillabe, F. syllabe, L. syllaba, Gr. 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 reënforcement, of the stress as to give the feeling of separate impulses. See Guide to Pronunciation, §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.

Syl"la*ble, v. t.

Definition: To pronounce the syllables of; to utter; to articulate. Milton.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition