syllable

Etymology

From Middle English syllable, sillable, syllabylle, sylabul, from Anglo-Norman sillable, from Old French sillebe, from Latin syllaba, from Ancient Greek συλλαβή (sullabḗ), from συλλαμβάνω (sullambánō, “I gather together”), from συν- (sun-, “together”) + λαμβάνω (lambánō, “I take”).

noun

1. (linguistics) A unit of human speech that is interpreted by the listener as a single sound, although syllables usually consist of one or more vowel sounds, either alone or combined with the sound of one or more consonants; a word consists of one or more syllables.
   Meronyms: onset, nucleus, coda, rime
   I wanted to look up velleity and quotidian and memorize the fuckers for all time, spell them, learn them, pronounce them syllable by syllable—vocalize, phonate, utter the sounds, say the words for all they're worth. 2007, Don DeLillo, Underworld: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Scribner Classics, page 543
2. The written representation of a given pronounced syllable.
3. A small part of a sentence or discourse; anything concise or short; a particle.
   Then let them cast backe their eies unto former generations of men, and marke what was done in the prime of the World, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Sem, Abraham, Job, and the rest that lived before any syllable of the Law of God was written, did they not sinne as much as we doe in every action not commanded? 1622, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, page 60

verb

1. (transitive, poetic) To utter in syllables.