Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having only one syllable.
- adj. Characterized by or consisting of monosyllables.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Consisting of one syllable: as, a monosyllabic word.
- Consisting of words of one syllable: as, a monosyllabic verse.
Wiktionary
- adj. Consisting of one syllable.
- adj. Using monosyllables, speaking in monosyllables; curt.
- n. a word consisting of one syllable
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Being a monosyllable, or composed of monosyllables
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having or characterized by or consisting of one syllable
Etymologies
- From Late Latin monosyllabicus, from Latin monosyllabus, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek μονοσύλλαβος. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“(Does anyone else get a kick out of the fact that "monosyllabic" is such a polysyllabic word?)”
“Speaking in monosyllabic 2-3 word posts, he was also the easiest to ignore.”
Think Progress » Congressional GOP wants to keep Steele ‘out of sight, out of mind.’
“Although Meredith admits that she’s willing to talk to him in short monosyllabic sentences laced with disdain and conempt, Alex expects that according to girl rules she’s obligated to hate him.”
grey’s anatomy recap : eleanor rigby is not an island (season 2, episode 11) | Seattle Metblogs
“Unlike most folks, the Goth dwarf preferred to communicate in short, monosyllabic bursts.”
“Chinese speak a monosyllabic language, 137; their genius and its limitations, 138, 139; oldest national religion of, 180, 181; their "docenal" and "sexagesimal" system of counting, 230-231.”
“If we answer in the affirmative, how can we explain coming repeatedly across this sort of writing, "lacu IN ipso" (XII. 56), that is, a monosyllabic preposition placed between a substantive and an adjective or pronoun, a kind of composition found in the poets, but disapproved by the prose-writers, who, if so placing a preposition, used a dissyllable and put the adjective first.”
Tacitus and Bracciolini The Annals Forged in the XVth Century
“Byronic rhyme, for such a four-word monosyllabic liaison — this unwieldy oronym — yet it is strongly urged upon the ear by the otherwise jolting truncation, syllabic and grammatical both, of the echoic "as we!" [”
“Chinese belongs to the former class of languages, the "monosyllabic," Turkish to the latter, the”
“He joked that the hardest part was going from a "monosyllabic" character like Teal'c to playing someone far less stoic.”
GameSpot's News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features
“Why are there five syllables in the word "monosyllabic"?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘monosyllabic’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Prosody
Your terms and additions are welcome.
headless iamb, tailless trochee, dibrach, disyllable, trisyllable, tetrasyllable, pyrrhus, iamb, trochee, choree, choreus, tribrach and 203 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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Morthalion's Words
supercilious, kvetch, kvass, splurge, erroneous, pugnacious, macabre, gauche, conglomerate, abyss, paraphernalia, kleptomania and 285 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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wreckingball's Words
reprehensible, problematize, crepuscular, deleterious, pestilent, strumpet, draggletail, interrobang, meretricious, systematize, schadenfreude, capricious and 443 more...
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Necessary?
"Words are very..."
The above was the original description for this list. Unfortunately, it doesn't convey much about the list contents.
I'm leaving you to draw your own conclusions abo...supererogation, fruitcake, unbeknownst, melifluous, bane, cavy, unnecessary, lyrical, question, undertow, weapon, arduous and 200 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, M
metamerism, malady, margin, marauder, maverick, mercury, mirth, mandible, macerate, meteor, manumission, mica and 292 more...
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cat 2012
mala fide, trafficking, impoverished, atrocity, divulge, personify, audacity, resurrect, dubious, bloated, sovereign, rein and 123 more...
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the name of the rose
pleasing words I encounter whilst reading umberto eco's novel of the same name.
matins, lauds, prime, terce, sext, nones, vespers, compline, usurper, simoniac, heresiarch, malefactor and 230 more...
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7756 more...
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Words about words
Most of these describe word patterns or relationships between words.
panvocalic, palindrome, anagram, transposition, antigram, reversal, isogram, alternade, trinade, beheadment, decapitation, apheresis and 149 more...
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noele's list
vertiginous, verdant, mellifluous, serpentine, verdigris, traject, amaranthine, luminous, phosphorescent, temerous, cerulean, shapeshifter and 531 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for monosyllabic.
seanahan That's fun, how about unaffixedly. Oct 21, 2007
jennarenn "Monosyllabic isn't." -skipvia Oct 21, 2007