Syllable

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: syl=la=ble

CIDE DICTIONARY

Syllable, 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.].

•  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, 1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Withouten vice [i. e. mistake] of syllable or letter."  [1913 Webster]
•  A small part of a sentence or discourse; anything concise or short; a particle.  [1913 Webster]

  "Before any syllable of the law of God was written."  [1913 Webster]

  "Who dare speak
  One syllable against him?"  [1913 Webster]

Syllable, v. t. 

 To pronounce the syllables of; to utter; to articulate.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Syllable, n. & v.
--n.
1 a unit of pronunciation uttered without interruption, forming the whole or a part of a word and usu. having one vowel sound often with a consonant or consonants before or after: there are two syllables in water and three in inferno.
2 a character or characters representing a syllable.
3 (usu. with neg.) the least amount of speech or writing (did not utter a syllable).
--v.tr. pronounce by syllables; articulate distinctly.

Idiom

in words of one syllable expressed plainly or bluntly.

Derivative

syllabled adj. (also in comb.).

Etymology

ME f. AF sillable f. OF sillabe f. L syllaba f. Gk sullabe (as SYN-, lambano take)

THESAURUS

Syllable

Spenserian stanza, allophone, alveolar, antistrophe, antonym, apico-alveolar, apico-dental, articulation, aspiration, assimilation, atom, bilabial, bit, book, burden, cacuminal, canto, cerebral, check, chorus, consonant, continuant, couplet, crumb, dental, diphthong, dissimilation, distich, envoi, epenthetic vowel, epode, explosive, expression, free form, glide, glottal, glottalization, guttural, heptastich, hexastich, homograph, homonym, homophone, jot, labial, labialization, labiodental, labiovelar, laryngeal, lateral, lexeme, line, lingual, linguistic form, liquid, locution, logos, lota, manner of articulation, measure, metonym, minimum free form, modicum, modification, monophthong, monostich, monosyllable, morphophoneme, mute, nasal, occlusive, octastich, octave, octet, orthographize, ottava rima, ounce, outspell, palatal, parasitic vowel, peak, pentastich, pharyngeal, pharyngealization, phone, phoneme, plosive, polysyllable, prothetic vowel, quatrain, refrain, retroflex, rhyme royal, segmental phoneme, semivowel, septet, sestet, sextet, shred, sonant, sonority, speech sound, spell, spell backward, spell out, stanza, stave, stop, strain, strophe, surd, syllabic nucleus, syllabic peak, syllabize, synonym, tercet, term, terza rima, tetrastich, trace out, transition sound, triphthong, triplet, tristich, usage, utterance, velar, verbalism, verbum, verse, vocable, vocalic, vocoid, voice, voiced sound, voiceless sound, voicing, vowel, whit, word, write out

ROGET THESAURUS

Syllable

Letter

N letter, character, hieroglyphic, type, capitals, digraph, trigraph, ideogram, ideograph, majuscule, minuscule, majuscule, minuscule, alphabet, ABC, abecedary, christcross-row, consonant, vowel, diphthong, triphthong, mute, liquid, labial, dental, guttural, syllable, monosyllable, dissyllable, polysyllable, affix, suffix, spelling, orthograph, phonography, phonetic spelling, anagrammatism, metagrammatism, cipher, monogram, anagram, doubleacrostic, literal, alphabetical, abecedarian, syllabic, majuscular, minuscular, uncial.