i-beam

1. 1.

   girder having a cross section resembling the letter `I'

   Broadergirder

Questions about i-beam

What does i-beam mean?

i-beam means "girder having a cross section resembling the letter `I'".

How many syllables are in i-beam?

i-beam has 3 syllables and divides as i--be-am under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

Is i-beam a common word?

i-beam is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.