How many syllables in “problematic”?

“problematic” has 4 syllables: prob·lem·at·ic

IPA
/ˌpɹɑ.blə.ˈmæt.ɪk/
Stress
prob-lem-AT-ic (pattern 2-0-1-0)
Division
prob·lem·at·ic

Pronunciation

Say it likeIPASyllablesCountSource
prob-lem-AT-ic /ˌpɹɑ.blə.ˈmæt.ɪk/ p r aa · b l ah · m ae t · ih k 4 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 (4)
prob·lem·at·ic
Morphemes (2)
problem + -atic

The syllable breaks of problematic (prob·lem·at·ic) line up with its morphemes (problem + -atic): every morpheme boundary is also a syllable boundary, so the word divides the same way for a syllable count and for a morphology exercise.

Full morpheme breakdown of “problematic” →

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

Frequently Asked Questions

How many syllables are in "problematic"?
"problematic" has four syllables: prob·lem·at·ic.
How do you divide "problematic" into syllables?
prob·lem·at·ic. The syllable breaks of problematic (prob·lem·at·ic) line up with its morphemes (problem + -atic): every morpheme boundary is also a syllable boundary, so the word divides the same way for a syllable count and for a morphology exercise.
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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.