How many syllables in “unhappiness”?

“unhappiness” has 4 syllables: un·hap·pi·ness

IPA
/ən.ˈhæp.i.nɪs/
Stress
un-HAP-pi-ness (pattern 0-1-0-0)
Division
un·hap·pi·ness

Pronunciation

Say it likeIPASyllablesCountSource
un-HAP-pi-ness /ən.ˈhæp.i.nɪs/ ah n · hh ae p · iy · n ih s 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)
un·hap·pi·ness
Morphemes (3)
un- + happy + -ness

The syllable breaks of unhappiness (un·hap·pi·ness) line up with its morphemes (un- + happy + -ness): 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 “unhappiness” →

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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 "unhappiness"?
"unhappiness" has four syllables: un·hap·pi·ness.
How do you divide "unhappiness" into syllables?
un·hap·pi·ness. The syllable breaks of unhappiness (un·hap·pi·ness) line up with its morphemes (un- + happy + -ness): 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.