syllabic - consisting of a syllable or syllables; constituting a syllable or the nucleus of a syllable; consisting of a consonant sound not accompanied in the same syllable by a vowel sound or consisting of a vowel sound dominating the other vowel sounds in a syllable (as being the first vowel in a falling diphthong); "the syllabic `l' in `riddle' or the syllabic `n' in `botany' when it is pronounced `bot-n-y'"; "the syllabic `o' in `oi'"