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MONOSYLLABLE

Volume 7 · 60 words · 1778 Edition

in grammar, a word that consists only of one syllable, and is composed either of one or more letters pronounced at the same time. The too frequent use of monosyllables has a very bad effect in English poetry, as Mr Pope both intimates and exemplifies in the same verse, viz.

"And ten flow words oft creep in one dull line."