bisyllabic

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

bi- +‎ syllabic

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bisyllabic (not comparable)

  1. Comprising two syllables.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Bisyllabic is often considered malformed by prescriptive language users, it being an etymological hybrid of Latin (bi-) and Greek (syllabic) roots; the term disyllabic is generally preferred by such commentators (it features di-, the Grecian equivalent of the Latinate bi-), and also occurs far more frequently in common usage.[1][2][3][4]
  • However, some linguists use the term bisyllabic.

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ The Corpus of Contemporary American English: disyllabic (34) vs. bisyllabic (2): Disyllabic is seventeen times more common than bisyllabic in this corpus.
  2. ^ The British National Corpus (BYU–BNC): disyllabic (18) vs. bisyllabic (1): Disyllabic is eighteen times more common than bisyllabic in this corpus.
  3. ^ The Time Magazine Corpus of American English: disyllabic (0), dissyllabic (1) vs. bisyllabic (1): Bisyllabic and dissyllabic (a superseded spelling of disyllabic) occur equally often in this corpus.
  4. ^ The Oxford English Dictionary (BYU–OED): disyllabic (7), dissyllabic (6) vs. bisyllabic (1): Disyllabic and dissyllabic, taken together, are thirteen times more common than bisyllabic in the entire text of this dictionary.