Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A word or an utterance of one syllable.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A word of one syllable.
- To express in or reduce to one syllable.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A word of one syllable.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a word or utterance of one syllable
Etymologies
- From Latin monosyllabum, from Greek monosullabon : mono-, mono- + sullabē, syllable; see syllable. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The monosyllable is short, sounds well, and is understood by all denominations of Christians.”
“As Nicolson argues, "face" is a simple, plain English monosyllable, but it also has a resonant double meaning.”
The Guardian: The King James Bible reconsidered | David Edgar
“A word of one syllable is called a monosyllable, as just; a word of two syllables, a dissyllable, as just'ice; a word of three syllables, a trisyllable, as just'i-fy; a word of more than three syllables, a polysyllable, as just-ca'tion.”
“I did my best to draw my fair companions into a little chat, but found my _vis-à-vis_ -- the daughter of my successor outside -- most impracticable; a monosyllable was the extent of her exertion: whilst her companion, who was a lively, intelligent-looking girl, and very pretty withal, was necessarily chilled by the taciturnity of her senior.”
Impressions of America During the years 1833, 1834 and 1835. In Two Volumes, Volume I.
“The short and dreadful monosyllable which is familiar to us in the pages of the”
“Imagine my joy when I got back the monosyllable, meaning all that lot.”
“No," for a monosyllable is the most one can hope to secure of the conversation in an interview; but the pretty lady interviewer went on reproachfully: "Have you seen that stately hill of the dead, the”
“She was Stella Marguerite Fay, but the air of glamour that clung to the monosyllable she was known by suited her, as did its unchanging nature.”
“They can create universes by uttering one monosyllable: Be.”
“His lips pursed the monosyllable, "clothes," but Dick shook his head reprovingly.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘monosyllable’.
-
Linguistic Terms
Words that (mostly) only linguists know.
arpabet, protologism, diacritic, macron, macaronic, capitonym, grapheme, boustrophedon, allograph, analphabetic, idiomatic, portmanteau and 40 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
Encountered while reading
snatiation, urodynamics, cadaverine, putrescine, ferret emesis, dracula fish, psychedelic frogfish, mangkorn chomphoo, sengi, blonde-ginger bat, symplectic camel, zeolite and 312 more...
-
Jheti's Words
ordinarily, diacritic, intrinsic, coalesce, salient, valence, crenellations, expurgate, relapse, disconsolate, matriculation, corrugated and 128 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for monosyllable.
bilby Reference is to the c-word. Jul 19, 2009
sionnach a woman's commodity, according to Grose's "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue" Jul 17, 2009
sarra MLL! May 7, 2008
whichbe This word has five syllables. May 7, 2008