monosyllabic word; word with one syllable
Tone colorsmāmámǎmàma
Meanings
1 sense · 4 examplesnoun
monosyllabic word; word consisting of a single syllable
In Chinese, monosyllabic words are typically single characters (e.g., 人, 水, 大), but can also include 'erhua' forms where the '儿' suffix merges phonetically with the preceding character to form one syllable (e.g., 花儿 huār, 这儿 zhèr).
Rén人
、
kǒu口
、
shǒu手
dōu都
shì是
dān单
yīn音
cí词
。
'Rén' (person), 'kǒu' (mouth), and 'shǒu' (hand) are all monosyllabic words.
"
Huār花
suī儿
"
rán虽
yǒu然
liǎng有
gè两
zì个
dàn字
，
zhǐ但
shì只
yī是
gè一
dān个
yīn单
cí音
词
。
Although 'huār' (flower) is written with two characters, it is pronounced as a single syllable (monosyllabic word).
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Gǔ古
dài代
hàn汉
yǔ语
zhōng中
dān单
yīn音
cí词
zhàn占
duō多
shù数
，
xiàn现
dài代
hàn汉
yǔ语
zhōng中
shuāng双
yīn音
cí词
gèng更
duō多
。
Monosyllabic words predominated in Classical Chinese, while modern Chinese contains more disyllabic words.
"
Bō玻
li璃
"
shì是
shuāng双
yīn音
cí词
，
bù不
shì是
dān单
yīn音
cí词
。
'Bōli' (glass) is a disyllabic word, not a monosyllabic word.