SYLLABLE

I. noun see: latch Date: 14th century 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, one or more letters (as syl, la, and ble ) in a word (as syllable ) usually set off from the rest of the word by a centered dot or a hyphen and roughly corresponding to the ~s of spoken language and treated as helps to pronunciation or as guides to placing hyphens at the end of a line, the smallest conceivable expression or unit of something ; jot , sol-fa ~s , II. transitive verb (~d; syllabling) Date: 15th century to give a number or arrangement of ~s to (a word or verse), to express or utter in or as if in ~s