How many syllables in “harmful”?

“harmful” has 2 syllables: harm·ful

IPA
/ˈhɑɹm.fəl/
Stress
HARM-ful (pattern 1-0)
Division
harm·ful

Pronunciation

Say it likeIPASyllablesCountSource
HARM-ful /ˈhɑɹm.fəl/ hh aa r m · f ah l 2 CMU dictionary

Syllables are shown in ARPAbet (the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary's phoneme alphabet). Respellings put the stressed syllable in capitals.

Syllables vs. morphemes

Syllables (2)
harm·ful
Morphemes (2)
harm + -ful

The syllable breaks of harmful (harm·ful) line up with its morphemes (harm + -ful): every morpheme boundary is also a syllable boundary, so the word divides the same way for a syllable count and for a morphology exercise.

Count syllables in your own text

Paste a line or a whole poem: syllables, stress, IPA and meter, free and in your browser.

Open the syllable counter →

Pronunciations from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Hyphenation from the hyph_en_US patterns.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many syllables are in "harmful"?
"harmful" has two syllables: harm·ful.
How do you divide "harmful" into syllables?
harm·ful. The syllable breaks of harmful (harm·ful) line up with its morphemes (harm + -ful): every morpheme boundary is also a syllable boundary, so the word divides the same way for a syllable count and for a morphology exercise.
Is this syllable counter free?
Yes. The Fixie syllable counter is free, needs no signup, and runs in your browser; paste any text to count syllables, see stress and IPA.