syllable

[sil-uh-buhl] / ˈsɪl ə bəl /

NOUN

speech sound

Synonyms

WEAK

affricate click consonant diphthong fricative implosive liquid phone phonetic entity phonetic unit plosive sibilant sonant spirant vocable

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Shortly before he took office in January 2025, the Chinese government and official media began using a different Chinese character for "lu" to represent the first syllable in his surname.

From Barron's • May 12, 2026

In English, 75 of the 100 are a single syllable.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026

And with that single syllable, I had cancer.

From Slate • Mar. 29, 2026

In healthy participants, brain activity dropped when the imagined syllable matched the sound played through the headphones.

From Science Daily • Jan. 23, 2026

This was a calm, deliberate world, a world where dreams were real and each syllable held the light like a pearl.

From "Chasing Vermeer" by Blue Balliett

Vocabulary lists containing syllable

TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)

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Foundational Reading

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Reading: Literature - Introductory

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