polysyllabicity

English

Noun

polysyllabicity (uncountable)

1. The state or characteristic of being polysyllabic.
   • 1943, John de Francis, "The Alphabetization of Chinese," Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 63, no. 4 (Oct/Dec), p. 235,

     The drift of the Chinese language toward greater polysyllabicity is seen even more clearly in the fact that not more than 15 percent of the Chinese equivalents of foreign technical terms consist of only one syllable.

   • 2005, Jay Newhard, "Grelling's Paradox," Philosophical Studies, Springer, vol. 126, no. 1, p. 2,

     "Polysyllabicity" and "utterableness" each has the word-property it designates.

Related terms

• polysyllable
• polysyllabicism
• polysyllabism

References

• “polysyllabicity”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.