Three syllable words fill the vocabulary of school, work, and daily conversation, from computer and family to beautiful and remember. Learners meet them once the shortest words are secure, and each 3 syllable word is counted by its three vowel sounds rather than its length.
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What Are Three Syllable Words? (Trisyllabic Words)
A three syllable word is spoken as three syllables, such as an-i-mal and com-pu-ter. Each syllable holds one vowel sound. Words of three syllables are also called trisyllabic words, from Greek tri, meaning “three.”
Syllable count follows vowel sounds, not letters. Strawberry has ten letters and three syllables, while strength has eight letters and only one. To check any word, say it aloud with a hand under the chin and count how many times the jaw drops.
List of Three Syllable Words From A to Z
Every word here is spoken as three syllables in standard American English, with the split shown in parentheses.
Three Syllable Words Starting With A
| Addition (ad-di-tion) | Adventure (ad-ven-ture) | Advertise (ad-ver-tise) |
| Afternoon (af-ter-noon) | Ambition (am-bi-tion) | Animal (an-i-mal) |
| Attention (at-ten-tion) | Attractive (at-trac-tive) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With B
| Banana (ba-nan-a) | Battlefield (bat-tle-field) | Beautiful (beau-ti-ful) |
| Blackberry (black-ber-ry) | Buffalo (buf-fa-lo) | Butterfly (but-ter-fly) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With C
| Calculate (cal-cu-late) | Calendar (cal-en-dar) | Capable (ca-pa-ble) |
| Celebrate (cel-e-brate) | Celery (cel-er-y) | Champion (cham-pi-on) |
| Character (char-ac-ter) | Cheeseburger (cheese-burg-er) | Cinema (cin-e-ma) |
| Citizen (cit-i-zen) | Company (com-pa-ny) | Compliment (com-pli-ment) |
| Computer (com-pu-ter) | Condition (con-di-tion) | Confident (con-fi-dent) |
| Consider (con-sid-er) | Consonant (con-so-nant) | Continent (con-ti-nent) |
| Continue (con-tin-ue) | Countryside (coun-try-side) | Critical (crit-i-cal) |
| Criticize (crit-i-cize) | Cucumber (cu-cum-ber) | Curious (cu-ri-ous) |
| Customer (cus-tom-er) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With D
| Dangerous (dan-ger-ous) | Decorate (dec-o-rate) | Delicious (de-li-cious) |
| Deliver (de-liv-er) | Demonstrate (dem-on-strate) | Determine (de-ter-mine) |
| Develop (de-vel-op) | Difficult (dif-fi-cult) | Dinosaur (di-no-saur) |
| Direction (di-rec-tion) | Disappear (dis-ap-pear) | Discover (dis-cov-er) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With E
| Edition (e-di-tion) | Elegant (el-e-gant) | Elephant (el-e-phant) |
| Energy (en-er-gy) | Engineer (en-gi-neer) | Entertain (en-ter-tain) |
| Establish (es-tab-lish) | Examine (ex-am-ine) | Excellent (ex-cel-lent) |
| Exercise (ex-er-cise) | Expensive (ex-pen-sive) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With F
| Factory (fac-to-ry) | Familiar (fa-mil-iar) | Fantastic (fan-tas-tic) |
| Furniture (fur-ni-ture) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With G and H
| Galaxy (gal-ax-y) | Generous (gen-er-ous) | Gorilla (go-ril-la) |
| Grandfather (grand-fa-ther) | Grandmother (grand-moth-er) | Gravity (grav-i-ty) |
| Holiday (hol-i-day) | Horrible (hor-ri-ble) | Hospital (hos-pi-tal) |
| Hurricane (hur-ri-cane) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With I, J and K
| Imagine (i-mag-ine) | Important (im-por-tant) | Instrument (in-stru-ment) |
| Introduce (in-tro-duce) | Kangaroo (kan-ga-roo) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With L
| Library (li-brar-y) | Logical (log-i-cal) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With M
| Marvelous (mar-vel-ous) | Masterpiece (mas-ter-piece) | Medicine (med-i-cine) |
| Memorize (mem-o-rize) | Memory (mem-o-ry) | Microphone (mi-cro-phone) |
| Multiply (mul-ti-ply) | Musical (mu-si-cal) | Musician (mu-si-cian) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With N and O
| Newspaper (news-pa-per) | Obvious (ob-vi-ous) | Occupy (oc-cu-py) |
| Orchestra (or-ches-tra) | Organize (or-gan-ize) | Overcome (o-ver-come) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With P
| Passenger (pas-sen-ger) | Personal (per-son-al) | Physical (phys-i-cal) |
| Piano (pi-an-o) | Pineapple (pine-ap-ple) | Popular (pop-u-lar) |
| Position (po-si-tion) | Potato (po-ta-to) | Practical (prac-ti-cal) |
| President (pres-i-dent) | Property (prop-er-ty) | Pyramid (pyr-a-mid) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With Q and R
| Quality (qual-i-ty) | Radio (ra-di-o) | Realize (re-al-ize) |
| Recognize (rec-og-nize) | Regular (reg-u-lar) | Relevant (rel-e-vant) |
| Remember (re-mem-ber) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With S
| Satisfy (sat-is-fy) | Screwdriver (screw-driv-er) | Serious (se-ri-ous) |
| Signature (sig-na-ture) | Similar (sim-i-lar) | Simplify (sim-pli-fy) |
| Solution (so-lu-tion) | Stadium (sta-di-um) | Strawberry (straw-ber-ry) |
| Studio (stu-di-o) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With T
| Telephone (tel-e-phone) | Terrible (ter-ri-ble) | Thunderstorm (thun-der-storm) |
| Tomato (to-ma-to) | Tornado (tor-na-do) | Tradition (tra-di-tion) |
| Tropical (trop-i-cal) | Typical (typ-i-cal) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With U
| Umbrella (um-brel-la) | Understand (un-der-stand) | Uniform (u-ni-form) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With V and W
| Vacation (va-ca-tion) | Various (var-i-ous) | Villager (vil-lag-er) |
| Volcano (vol-ca-no) | Volunteer (vol-un-teer) | Waterfall (wa-ter-fall) |
| Wilderness (wil-der-ness) | Wonderful (won-der-ful) |
Three Syllable Words Starting With X, Y and Z
Everyday three syllable words starting with X, Y and Z are rare, and the ones that exist are technical or borrowed terms.
Three Syllable Nouns
Nouns of this length name the people, places, and objects of school and daily life, from family and computer to elephant and hospital. Most 3 syllable nouns stress the first syllable, as in FAM-i-ly and EL-e-phant.
| Tomato (to-ma-to) | Gorilla (go-ril-la) | Umbrella (um-brel-la) |
| Hospital (hos-pi-tal) | Animal (an-i-mal) | Energy (en-er-gy) |
| Company (com-pa-ny) | Memory (mem-o-ry) | Factory (fac-to-ry) |
| Library (li-brar-y) | Galaxy (gal-ax-y) | Calendar (cal-en-dar) |
| Cinema (cin-e-ma) | Medicine (med-i-cine) | Radio (ra-di-o) |
| Studio (stu-di-o) | Stadium (sta-di-um) | Uniform (u-ni-form) |
| Property (prop-er-ty) | Quality (qual-i-ty) | Gravity (grav-i-ty) |
| Celery (cel-er-y) | Cucumber (cu-cum-ber) | Pineapple (pine-ap-ple) |
| Butterfly (but-ter-fly) | Grandmother (grand-moth-er) | Grandfather (grand-fa-ther) |
| Afternoon (af-ter-noon) | Telephone (tel-e-phone) | Microphone (mi-cro-phone) |
| Dinosaur (di-no-saur) | Kangaroo (kan-ga-roo) | Buffalo (buf-fa-lo) |
| Tornado (tor-na-do) | Volcano (vol-ca-no) | Piano (pi-an-o) |
| Orchestra (or-ches-tra) | Hurricane (hur-ri-cane) | Waterfall (wa-ter-fall) |
| Pyramid (pyr-a-mid) | Continent (con-ti-nent) | President (pres-i-dent) |
| Musician (mu-si-cian) | Champion (cham-pi-on) | Citizen (cit-i-zen) |
| Villager (vil-lag-er) | Passenger (pas-sen-ger) | Customer (cus-tom-er) |
| Engineer (en-gi-neer) | Volunteer (vol-un-teer) | Character (char-ac-ter) |
| Adventure (ad-ven-ture) | Furniture (fur-ni-ture) | Signature (sig-na-ture) |
| Attention (at-ten-tion) | Direction (di-rec-tion) | Condition (con-di-tion) |
| Solution (so-lu-tion) | Position (po-si-tion) | Vacation (va-ca-tion) |
| Tradition (tra-di-tion) | Ambition (am-bi-tion) | Addition (ad-di-tion) |
| Edition (e-di-tion) |
Three Syllable Verbs
Verbs of this length such as remember, celebrate, and discover carry many of the actions of everyday speech. The stress falls on the second syllable in re-MEM-ber and on the first in CEL-e-brate.
| Remember (re-mem-ber) | Consider (con-sid-er) | Celebrate (cel-e-brate) |
| Discover (dis-cov-er) | Imagine (i-mag-ine) | Organize (or-gan-ize) |
| Recognize (rec-og-nize) | Realize (re-al-ize) | Memorize (mem-o-rize) |
| Criticize (crit-i-cize) | Advertise (ad-ver-tise) | Exercise (ex-er-cise) |
| Decorate (dec-o-rate) | Demonstrate (dem-on-strate) | Calculate (cal-cu-late) |
| Deliver (de-liv-er) | Develop (de-vel-op) | Determine (de-ter-mine) |
| Establish (es-tab-lish) | Continue (con-tin-ue) | Introduce (in-tro-duce) |
| Understand (un-der-stand) | Overcome (o-ver-come) | Disappear (dis-ap-pear) |
| Entertain (en-ter-tain) | Multiply (mul-ti-ply) | Satisfy (sat-is-fy) |
| Simplify (sim-pli-fy) | Occupy (oc-cu-py) | Examine (ex-am-ine) |
Three Syllable Adjectives
Adjectives of this length such as beautiful, important, and dangerous describe people, places, and events in detail. They form the comparative and superlative with more and most, as in more beautiful and most important.
| Beautiful (beau-ti-ful) | Delicious (de-li-cious) | Important (im-por-tant) |
| Fantastic (fan-tas-tic) | Wonderful (won-der-ful) | Terrible (ter-ri-ble) |
| Horrible (hor-ri-ble) | Capable (ca-pa-ble) | Curious (cu-ri-ous) |
| Serious (se-ri-ous) | Various (var-i-ous) | Obvious (ob-vi-ous) |
| Generous (gen-er-ous) | Dangerous (dan-ger-ous) | Marvelous (mar-vel-ous) |
| Popular (pop-u-lar) | Regular (reg-u-lar) | Similar (sim-i-lar) |
| Familiar (fa-mil-iar) | Excellent (ex-cel-lent) | Difficult (dif-fi-cult) |
| Confident (con-fi-dent) | Elegant (el-e-gant) | Relevant (rel-e-vant) |
| Musical (mu-si-cal) | Physical (phys-i-cal) | Practical (prac-ti-cal) |
| Logical (log-i-cal) | Typical (typ-i-cal) | Critical (crit-i-cal) |
| Tropical (trop-i-cal) | Personal (per-son-al) |
Easy 3 Syllable Words
These 3 syllable words appear in early reading and everyday speech, so learners meet them first. Each one breaks into three distinct syllables.
| Animal (an-i-mal) | Holiday (hol-i-day) | Banana (ba-nan-a) |
| Elephant (el-e-phant) | Potato (po-ta-to) | Tomato (to-ma-to) |
| Umbrella (um-brel-la) | Computer (com-pu-ter) | Energy (en-er-gy) |
| Library (li-brar-y) | Memory (mem-o-ry) | Hospital (hos-pi-tal) |
| Afternoon (af-ter-noon) | Butterfly (but-ter-fly) | Volcano (vol-ca-no) |
| Piano (pi-an-o) | Tornado (tor-na-do) | Dinosaur (di-no-saur) |
| Kangaroo (kan-ga-roo) | Grandmother (grand-moth-er) | Telephone (tel-e-phone) |
| Buffalo (buf-fa-lo) | Pyramid (pyr-a-mid) | Company (com-pa-ny) |
| Gorilla (go-ril-la) |
Compound 3 Syllable Words
A compound word of this length joins shorter words into one, as in grand-moth-er and wa-ter-fall. The parts stay recognizable, so the syllable split is heard at once.
| Grandmother (grand-moth-er) | Grandfather (grand-fa-ther) | Afternoon (af-ter-noon) |
| Butterfly (but-ter-fly) | Waterfall (wa-ter-fall) | Newspaper (news-pa-per) |
| Screwdriver (screw-driv-er) | Countryside (coun-try-side) | Battlefield (bat-tle-field) |
| Strawberry (straw-ber-ry) | Blackberry (black-ber-ry) | Cheeseburger (cheese-burg-er) |
| Thunderstorm (thun-der-storm) | Masterpiece (mas-ter-piece) | Wilderness (wil-der-ness) |
Three Syllable Words With Closed Syllables
A closed syllable ends in a consonant sound and keeps its vowel short. In words such as fan-tas-tic and in-stru-ment, closed syllables shape the rhythm across all three parts.
| Fantastic (fan-tas-tic) | Important (im-por-tant) | Instrument (in-stru-ment) |
| Compliment (com-pli-ment) | Establish (es-tab-lish) | Attractive (at-trac-tive) |
| Expensive (ex-pen-sive) | Consonant (con-so-nant) |
Related: Closed syllable words
Stress in Three Syllable Words
Every three syllable word stresses one of its three syllables. Word type and word ending predict the pattern more often than any other rule.
- Stress on the first syllable marks many nouns and adjectives: FAM-i-ly, EL-e-phant, BEAU-ti-ful.
- Stress on the second syllable marks many words ending in -tion and many verbs: com-PU-ter, ba-NA-na, re-MEM-ber.
- Stress on the third syllable marks words ending in -eer, -ee, and -oon: en-gi-NEER, vol-un-TEER, af-ter-NOON.
Related: Word stress
Longest 3 Syllable Words
The longest trisyllabic words hold their three vowel sounds across ten or more letters. Thunderstorm and cheeseburger reach twelve letters, yet each keeps three syllables.
| Word | Letters | Syllable Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| Grandmother | 11 | grand-moth-er |
| Grandfather | 11 | grand-fa-ther |
| Thunderstorm | 12 | thun-der-storm |
| Cheeseburger | 12 | cheese-burg-er |
| Screwdriver | 11 | screw-driv-er |
| Countryside | 11 | coun-try-side |
| Battlefield | 11 | bat-tle-field |
| Masterpiece | 11 | mas-ter-piece |
| Strawberry | 10 | straw-ber-ry |
| Blackberry | 10 | black-ber-ry |
| Wilderness | 10 | wil-der-ness |
| Stepmother | 10 | step-moth-er |
Sentences With 3 Syllable Words
Each sentence carries several 3 syllable words in ordinary word order, so the rhythm is heard in context.
- My family went on holiday in the summer.
- The computer in the library stopped working.
- A beautiful butterfly landed on the flower.
- We celebrated my grandmother’s birthday on Saturday.
- The musician played the piano with energy.
- A delicious banana is a natural source of energy.
- The engineer will introduce the machine tomorrow.
- The camera captured a wonderful afternoon.
- The dangerous volcano frightened the family.
- My favorite animal is the elephant.
FAQs
Three syllable words are called trisyllabic words, or trisyllables. The term comes from Greek tri, meaning “three,” and syllabē, the source of syllable. Words of one syllable are monosyllabic, and words of two are disyllabic.
Computer is a three syllable word, divided as com-pu-ter, and family is another, divided as fam-i-ly. Each word holds three vowel sounds, one in each syllable.
Alphabet is the answer to the riddle, divided as al-pha-bet. The word names the 26 letters of the English alphabet, yet it is spoken in only three syllables.
The stress in three syllable words depends on the word type and ending. Nouns and adjectives often stress the first syllable, as in FAM-i-ly, while words ending in -eer or -oon stress the third, as in en-gi-NEER.
A three syllable word divides at its two syllable breaks, one after each vowel sound except the last. Com-pu-ter splits into three parts, and saying the word slowly with a hand under the chin marks where each break falls.
Related: Last syllable of a word
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