syllable

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French sillabe, silable, from Latin syllaba, from Greek syllabē, from syllambanein to gather together, from syn- + lambanein to take — more at latch Date: 14th century 1. a unit of spoken language that is next bigger than a speech sound and consists of one or more vowel sounds alone or of a syllabic consonant alone or of either with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following 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 corresponding to the syllables of spoken language and treated as helps to pronunciation or as guides to placing hyphens at the end of a line 3. the smallest conceivable expression or unit of something ; jot 4. sol-fa syllables II. transitive verb (syllabled; syllabling) Date: 15th century 1. to give a number or arrangement of syllables to (a word or verse) 2. to express or utter in or as if in syllables