Standard Lemma guide

syllabary

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈsɪləb(ə)ɹi/
  • General-American: /ˈsɪləˌbɛɹi/
  • General-American: /ˈsɪləb(ə)ɹi/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A table or list of syllabic letters or syllables.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: communications, journalism, literature, media, orthography, publishing, writing

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A writing system where each character represents a complete syllable.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: communications, journalism, literature, media, orthography, publishing, writing

Examples

  • It shouldn't be hard to come up with a musical syllabary in which pitches code for vowels and timbres code for consonants.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Narrower terms: alphasyllabary, abugida

3

noun

Meaning 3

a writing system whose characters represent syllables

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: syllabic script

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: script

Narrower terms: Devanagari, Devanagari script, Nagari, Nagari script, Linear B

History

Etymology

From New Latin syllabārium, from syllaba.

Across languages

Translations

35 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: tavumerkistö — table
  • French: syllabaire — table
  • Greek: συλλαβάριο (syllavário) — table
  • Ancient Greek: συλλαβάριον (sullabárion) — table
  • Latin: syllabarium — table
  • Macedonian: слого́вница (slogóvnica) — table
  • Polish: sylabariusz — table
  • Portuguese: silabário — table
  • Tagalog: talapantigan — table
  • Bulgarian: сричкова азбука (sričkova azbuka) — system
  • Catalan: sil·labari — system
  • Chinese Mandarin: 音節文字 /音节文字 (yīnjié wénzì) — system
  • Czech: slabičné písmo — system
  • Danish: stavelsesskrift — system
  • Finnish: tavukirjoitus — system
  • Finnish: syllabaari — system
  • French: syllabaire — system
  • German: Silbenschrift — system
  • Greek: συλλαβογραφία (syllavografía) — system
  • Irish: siollabra — system
  • Japanese: 音節文字 (onsetsu moji) — system
  • Korean: 음절문자 (eumjeolmunja) — system
  • Latin: syllabarium — system
  • Macedonian: сло́говно пи́смо (slógovno písmo) — system
  • Norwegian Bokmål: stavelsesskrift — system
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: stavingsskrift — system
  • Polish: sylabariusz — system
  • Portuguese: silabário — system
  • Russian: слогова́я а́збука (slogovája ázbuka) — system
  • Russian: слогово́е письмо́ (slogovóje pisʹmó) — system
  • Russian: слогова́я пи́сьменность (slogovája písʹmennostʹ) — system
  • Spanish: silabario — system
  • Tagalog: talapantigan — system
  • Tagalog: pantigan — system
  • Welsh: sillwyddor — system