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Mar 31, 1999

This week's theme
Words that go out of their way to not apply to themselves

This week's words
phonetic
abbreviation
monosyllabic
hemidemisemiquaver
descender
diminutive
opuscule

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monosyllabic

monosyllabic (mon-uh-si-LAB-ik) adjective

1. Having only one syllable.

2. Characterized by or consisting of monosyllables.

[From Late Latin monosyllabon, from Greek monosullabon : mono-, mono- + sullabe, syllable.]

"A number of people, friends of friends of his, had said that he was tough to talk to and uncomfortable with strangers. `He can be positively monosyllabic,' one person told me."
Martha Sherrill; Mister Lonely Hearts; Esquire (New York); Apr 1, 1996.

Why does the word monosyllabic have five syllables?

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