specifically: a series or set of written characters each one of which is used to represent a syllable
Examples of syllabary in a Sentence
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There is no emoji alphabet or syllabary with which to construct arbitrary words or sentences, nor is there one in sight.—Longreads, 1 July 2025 The Cherokees had developed a syllabary and published their own newspaper.—David Treuer, Foreign Affairs, 9 June 2020 This syllabary allowed reading, writing and later printing to prosper in the Cherokee Nation.—Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Feb. 2023 It was written in Cherokee syllabary, a writing system that was only formally adopted by the tribe a few years prior.—Megan Gannon, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 May 2022 The museum’s new curator Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, who organized the exhibition, is pictured above with a selection of that sui-generis syllabary.—The New Yorker, 4 Mar. 2022 With a collaborator, Rozin devised an experimental curriculum that moved children through degrees of linguistic abstraction by teaching them Chinese logographs followed by a Japanese syllabary, and only then applying the same logic to English.—New York Times, 27 Dec. 2021 But nearly 600 years ago, a scientifically minded Korean king introduced hangul, an indigenous writing system often called the best designed syllabary in the world.—New York Times, 15 June 2019
Word History
Etymology
New Latin syllabarium, from Latin syllaba syllable
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