Mono

How to spell mono

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce mono

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mono mean?

1. nounSound reproduced through a single channel rather than in stereo.
2. nounAn informal North American name for infectious mononucleosis, a viral illness causing fatigue and a sore throat.

Mono in a sentence

• The old radio could only play music in mono.

• The doctor confirmed that her exhaustion was caused by mono.

• The engineer mixed the early recordings in mono before stereo became standard.

• He missed three weeks of work while recovering from mono.

Where does mono come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This little word is a clipping that traces back to the Greek monos, which literally meant 'alone' or 'single'. In modern English it lives a double life. As a sound-recording term it is simply the front half of 'monaural' or 'monophonic', words coined in the twentieth century to describe audio carried on one channel rather than the two of stereo. As a medical term, chiefly in North America, it is the casual shortening of 'mononucleosis', the illness named for the single large nucleated cells found in the blood of patients. In both cases the same ancient root for 'one' does the work, which is also why the prefix turns up in 'monologue' (one person speaking), 'monopoly' (one seller) and 'monotone' (one tone). The spelling stays reassuringly phonetic, so the only thing to remember is the Greek o that gives mono its single, solitary meaning.

How the word is built

• mono- (from Greek monos: single, one), used here as a standalone clipped word