suprasegmental

[ soo-pruh-seg-men-tl ]

adjective

1. above, beyond, or in addition to a segment.
2. Linguistics. pertaining to or noting features of speech, as stress, pitch, and length, that accompany individual consonants and vowels and may extend over more than one such segmental element; pertaining to junctural and prosodic features.

noun

1. a suprasegmental feature.

suprasegmental

/ ˌsjuː-; ˌsuːprəsɛɡˈmɛntəl /

adjective

1. linguistics denoting those features of a sound or sequence of sounds that accompany rather than form part of the consecutive segments of a word or sentence, as for example stress and pitch in English

Derived Forms

• ˌsuprasegˈmentally, adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of suprasegmental¹

First recorded in 1940–45; supra- + segmental