1. a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or a part of a word

Examples

• The word ‘cat’ has one syllable.
• The word ‘elephant’ has three syllables: el-e-phant.
• She clapped her hands for each syllable as she pronounced the word.
• Students practiced dividing words into syllables.
• The poem has a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.
• Break the word down syllable by syllable to help with spelling.
• The first syllable of ‘computer’ is ‘com’.