How many syllables in “unsuccessful”?

“unsuccessful” has 4 syllables: un·suc·cess·ful

IPA
/ˌʌn.sək.ˈsɛs.fəl/
Stress
un-suc-CESS-ful (pattern 2-0-1-0)
Division
un·suc·cess·ful

Pronunciation

Say it likeIPASyllablesCountSource
un-suc-CESS-ful /ˌʌn.sək.ˈsɛs.fəl/ ah n · s ah k · s eh s · f ah l 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·suc·cess·ful
Morphemes (3)
un- + success + -ful

The syllable breaks of unsuccessful (un·suc·cess·ful) line up with its morphemes (un- + success + -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.

Full morpheme breakdown of “unsuccessful” →

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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 "unsuccessful"?
"unsuccessful" has four syllables: un·suc·cess·ful.
How do you divide "unsuccessful" into syllables?
un·suc·cess·ful. The syllable breaks of unsuccessful (un·suc·cess·ful) line up with its morphemes (un- + success + -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.