monosyllabic word
- noun
- /ˌmɒnəˈsɪləbɪk wɜrd/
:
palabra monosilábica
- How, he asks, can a series of monosyllabic words in a poem in Magnus's journal, Klausturposturinn, be acceptable and at the same time violate the principle of euphony in Jon's poem?
Examples
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"I've noticed when I look back on my work that most of my early works had less of a fascination with the English language than they did with just trying to imitate monosyllabic words like "smash," "oof."
Academic text (2005) -
The inevitable proliferation and technological improvements of translating devices will mean more plainspeak, more monosyllabic words, and fewer polysyllabic words.
Academic text (2012) -
Two lists of 50 monosyllabic words were administered.
Academic text (2010) -
Like a line drawing, three monosyllabic words strung out like words in a children's book.
Fiction book (1999) -
He rarely uses metaphors and commonly uses monosyllabic words.
Academic text (1997) -
The English language has many vowel sounds associated with a variety of monosyllabic words (Onesti, 1974).
Academic text (2012) -
Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (phonetically balanced monosyllabic words): 0%
Academic text (2005) -
Script analyses of popular television shows such as South Park, 24, CSI, American Idol, and Friday Night Lights all reveal a preponderance of monosyllabic words and short sentences.
Academic text (2012) -
At times when Ollie gets near the edge of breakdown, the sentences of his narrative become shorter and shorter, the blocks of text shrinking to a few monosyllabic words pressed against the left-hand margin of the page into which the narrative nearly disappears.
Academic text (2009) -
The teacher explained that a monosyllabic word is one that has only one syllable.
Synonyms
2
6.3
A word with only one syllable
Antonyms
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase is directly compositional: 'monosyllabic' (having one syllable) modifies 'word', so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it means a word of a single syllable. This adjective+noun pattern is regular and cross-linguistically common, making the phrase transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Monosyllabic word comes from two parts: mono meaning 'one' and syllabic meaning a 'syllable' or 'one sound' in a word, so it simply means 'a word with only one syllable'.