| 释义 |
syl·la·ble
I. \ˈsiləbəl\ noun
(-s)
Etymology: Middle English sillable, from Middle French sillabe, from Latin syllaba, from Greek syllabē, from syllambanein to gather together, put together, combine in pronunciation, from syn- + lambanein to take, grasp — more at latch
1. : a unit of spoken language that is next bigger than a speech sound and consists of one or more vowel sounds alone (as \ī\ and \ə\ in \īleftindēə\ I left India) or of a syllabic consonant alone (as \ən\ in \wīdən\ widen) or of either accompanied by one or more consonant sounds preceding or following (as \stāt\ in \stātmənt\ statement or \ənd\ in \wīdənd\ widened
2. : one or more letters (as syl, la, and ble) in a word (as syl.la.ble) usually set off from the rest of the word by a centered dot or a hyphen and roughly but often not exactly corresponding to the syllables of spoken language and treated as helps to the ascertainment of pronunciation or as markers of places where a word may be hyphenated at the end of a written or printed line
3. : a monosyllabic word considered with reference to its meaning
< those awful syllables, hell, death, and sin — William Cowper >
4. : the smallest conceivable expression or unit of something : jot
< kept a diary for years, but never entered in it a syllable that had to do with his official life — H.G.Dwight >
< towns of gold can never countervail the least sentence or syllable of wit — R.W.Emerson >
< as if the past had resolved itself into this tiny esoteric pattern and that I could grasp it in an instant of time, and interpret its every single syllable as briefly — Walter de la Mare >
5.
a. : syllable name
b. : sol-fa syllables
< to sing by syllable >
II. transitive verb
(syllabled ; syllabled ; syllabling \-b(ə)liŋ\ ; syllables)
1. : to give a number or arrangement of syllables to (a word or verse)
< some uncouth poet scarcely able to syllable his words — Virginia Woolf >
< long unbroken sentences … filled with polysyllabled abstract nouns — Times Literary Supplement >
2. : to express or utter in or as if in syllables
< tongues that syllable men's names — John Milton >
< where the birds talked with words too sad and strange to syllable — J.C.Ransom > |