To syllabify means to divide a word into its separate syllables, the individual beats or sound chunks that make up the word. When you syllabify “elephant,” you break it into el-e-phant. When you syllabify “dictionary,” you get dic-tion-ar-y.

Teachers often ask students to syllabify words to help them spell better and understand how words are built. Breaking comprehension into com-pre-hen-sion makes it less intimidating and easier to remember. Poets syllabify words to count syllables for specific forms like haiku, which requires exactly seventeen syllables arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern.

You might also hear the related word syllabication, which means the same thing: the act of dividing words into syllables. Some dictionaries show syllabification by putting dots between syllables: syl·lab·i·fy.

Learning to syllabify helps you tackle long, unfamiliar words. Instead of seeing “multiplication” as one overwhelming chunk, you can break it down: mul-ti-pli-ca-tion. Suddenly that big word becomes five manageable pieces that are much easier to decode, pronounce, and spell.