suprasegmental
/ˌsuːp.ɹə.sɛɡˈmɛn.təl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.26 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
14
Letters
3
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An effect on speech, such as length, stress, tone, and phonation type, that extends over more than one segment of sounds.
adj
Of or relating to a suprasegmental.
adj
More than a segment.
Example Sentences
- "There are two kinds of phonemes in Chinese: segmental phonemes, which may be thought of as sequential sounds, and suprasegmental phonemes or tones, which in a sense are added to the syllable as a whole."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Italic *super Proto-Italic *superos Proto-Italic *superād Old Latin suprād Latin suprā Latin supra-lbor. English supra- English segment English -al English segmental English suprasegmental From supra- + segmental.