High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In phonology, syncope (pronounced /?s??k?pi?/, Greek syn- + kopein ?to strike?) is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word; especially, the loss of an unstressed vowel. Sounds may be removed from the interior of a word as a rhetoric or poetic device, whether for embellishment or for the sake of the meter. Latin commo[ve]rat poetic commorat ("he had moved") English hast[e]ning poetic hast'ning English heav[e]n poetic heav'n English over poetic o'er