{
    "mode": "perldoc",
    "parameter": "Lingua::EN::Syllable",
    "section": "",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/perldoc/Lingua%3A%3AEN%3A%3ASyllable/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-10T13:43:53Z",
    "synopsis": "use Lingua::EN::Syllable;\n$count = syllable('supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'); # 14",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "Lingua::EN::Syllable - count the number of syllables in English words\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "use Lingua::EN::Syllable;\n\n$count = syllable('supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'); # 14\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "Lingua::EN::Syllable::syllable() estimates the number of syllables in the word passed to it.\n\nNote that it isn't entirely accurate... it fails (by one syllable) for about 10-15% of my\n/usr/dict/words. The only way to get a 100% accurate count is to do a dictionary lookup, so this\nis a small and fast alternative where more-or-less accurate results will suffice, such as\nestimating the reading level of a document.\n\nI welcome pointers to more accurate algorithms, since this one is pretty quick-and-dirty. This\nwas designed for English (well, American at least) words, but sometimes guesses well for other\nlanguages.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "KNOWN LIMITATIONS": {
            "content": "Accuracy for words with non-alpha characters is somewhat undefined. In general, punctuation\ncharacters, et al, should be trimmed off before handing the word to syllable(), and hyphenated\ncompounds should be broken into their separate parts.\n\nSyllables for all-digit words (eg, \"1998\"; some call them \"numbers\") are often counted as the\nnumber of digits. A cooler solution would be converting \"1998\" to \"nineteen eighty eight\" (or\n\"one thousand nine hundred eighty eight\", or...), but that is left as an exercise for the\nreader.\n\nContractions are not well supported.\n\nCompound words (like \"lifeboat\"), where the first word ends in a silent 'e' are counted with an\nextra syllable.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "Lingua::Phonology - a framework of classes that provide \"an object model for lingistic phonology\nand sound change\". That includes syllables, and it looks like you can use it to get syllables\nfor words, but from a quick skim of the doc I can't see exactly how.\n\nText::Info - a new module (as of late 2015) that provides information about text in Germanic\nlanguages, including syllable count.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "REPOSITORY": {
            "content": "<https://github.com/neilb/Lingua-EN-Syllable>\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE": {
            "content": "This software is copyright (c) 1999 by Greg Fast <gdf@imsa.edu>\n\nThis is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl\n5 programming language system itself.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "AUTHOR": {
            "content": "Greg Fast (gdf@imsa.edu)\n",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "Lingua::EN::Syllable - count the number of syllables in English words",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": []
}