monosyllabic

UK/ˌmɒnə(ʊ)sɪˈlabɪk/

adjectiveC12 meaningsVery rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Monosyllabic means answering in single short words and saying as little as possible. Yes. No. Fine. Whatever.

Strictly the word means having one syllable, and a linguist uses it that way about words themselves — cat and through are both monosyllabic. Everyday English has taken it somewhere better: a monosyllabic teenager is not being studied for phonology, they are being uncooperative. That second sense is now the commoner one by far, and it carries a flavour of sulking or exhaustion. The parts are worth knowing, since mono- means one and a syllable is a beat of sound.

Definitions of monosyllabic

1adjectivemonosyllabicReplying in very short words, saying as little as possible.C1
“He was monosyllabic all the way home.”
2adjectivesyllableOf a word, having only one syllable.C1
“The poem is built almost entirely from monosyllabic words.”

Where it comes from

Latin
monosyllabicus
English, today
monosyllabic

Latin monosyllabicus, from Latin monosyllabus, from Hellenistic Ancient Greek μονοσύλλαβος. by surface analysis, monosyllable + -ic or mono- + syllabic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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