Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To form or divide into syllables.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To syllabicate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To form or divide into syllables.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To divide a word into syllables; to syllabicate; to syllabize.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb divide into syllables

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in 1799–1802; back-formation from syllabification; compare the Old French sillabifier.

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Examples

  • It proves that this was so since there are only so many ways in which a word may syllabify according to the basic principle of sonority hierarchy, an important concept in phonetics.

    Oddly formed locatives with inessive postclitic in Etruscan 2009

  • Hmmm, that doesn't sound right to me since phonotactic restrictions would cause the nasal to syllabify before the laryngeal and then it would be pronounced **m̥h₂ḱros, no?

    Enticed by a drunken thought 2008

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