unsyllabic

9.9

A sound that does not make its own syllable

adjective
/ˌʌnˈsɪləbɪk/

Specialized

: no silábico

Certain consonants can be either syllabic or unsyllabic depending on their phonetic context.

Examples

In linguistics, sounds classified as unsyllabic do not form a syllable.
In the word 'little', the second 'l' is often unsyllabic.
The vowel in the diphthong 'oi' is unsyllabic in English pronunciation.
The letter unsyllabic cannot function as a syllable.
In the word 'little', the second 'l' is often unsyllabic.
Certain consonants can be either syllabic or unsyllabic depending on their phonetic context.
In linguistics, sounds classified as unsyllabic do not form a syllable.

Synonyms

nonsyllabic

vsunsyllabic

Specialized

9.2

A sound that cannot be a syllable by itself

is the same meaning but uses a different word form

unsyllabled

vsunsyllabic

Specialized

9.9

A word or sound that has no separate syllables

focuses on being unable to form a syllable nucleus rather than division

Antonyms

syllabic

Specialized

1 7.3

A sound that forms the main part of a syllable, often a vowel

Surface Forms

unsyllabic positive

Morphology

unsyllabic = syllabic (transparent) = un + syllable + ic

The adjective 'syllabic' takes the productive negative prefix 'un-' to form the straightforward opposite 'unsyllabic'.

Etymology

The word unsyllabic is made of un- meaning 'not' and syllable, a unit of sound or 'one beat' in a word. So unsyllabic means 'not a syllable' and cannot form the main sound or stand alone as a syllable.