How many syllables in “watermelon”?

“watermelon” has 4 syllables: wa·ter·mel·on

IPA
/ˈwɔ.tɚ.ˌmɛ.lən/
Stress
WA-ter-mel-on (pattern 1-0-2-0)
Division
wa·ter·mel·on

Pronunciation

Say it likeIPASyllablesCountSource
WA-ter-mel-on /ˈwɔ.tɚ.ˌmɛ.lən/ w ao · t er · m eh · l ah n 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)
wa·ter·mel·on
Morphemes (2)
water + melon

The syllable breaks of watermelon (wa·ter·mel·on) line up with its morphemes (water + melon): 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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Pronunciations from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Hyphenation from the hyph_en_US patterns.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many syllables are in "watermelon"?
"watermelon" has four syllables: wa·ter·mel·on.
How do you divide "watermelon" into syllables?
wa·ter·mel·on. The syllable breaks of watermelon (wa·ter·mel·on) line up with its morphemes (water + melon): 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.