Pronunciation guide

Pronunciation guide

A pronunciation guide is given in brackets after the entry word and before the part of speech. Words of two or more syllables are broken up into small units, usually of one syllable, separated by hyphens. The stressed syllable in a word of two or more syllables is shown in bold type.

The sounds represented are as follows:a as in back (bak), active (ak-tiv)

ă as in abduct (ăb-dukt), gamma (gam-ă)

ah as in after (ahf-ter), palm (pahm)

air as in aerosol (air-ŏ-sol), care (kair)

ar as in tar (tar), heart (hart)

aw as in jaw (jaw), gall (gawl)

ay as in mania (may-nia), grey (gray)

b as in bed (bed)

ch as in chin (chin)

d as in day (day)

e as in red (red)

ĕ as in bowel (bow-ĕl)

ee as in see (see), haem (heem), caffeine (kaf-een)

eer as in fear (feer), serum (seer-ŭm)

er as in dermal (der-măl), labour (lay-ber)

ew as in dew (dew), nucleus (new-kli-ŭs)

ewr as in pure (pewr), dura (dewr-ă)

f as in fat (fat), phobia (foh-biă), cough (kof)

g as in gag (gag)

h as in hip (hip)

i as in fit (fit), acne (ak-ni), reduction (ri-duk-shŏn)

I as in eye (I), angiitis (an-ji-I-tis)

j as in jaw (jaw), gene (jeen), ridge (rij)

k as in kidney (kid-ni), chlorine (klor-een)

ks as in toxic (toks-ik)

kw as in quadrate (kwod-rayt)

l as in liver (liv-er)

m as in milk (milk)

n as in nit (nit)

ng as in sing (sing)

nk as in rank (rank), bronchus (bronk-ŭs)

o as in pot (pot)

ŏ as in buttock (but-ŏk)

oh as in home (hohm), post (pohst)

oi as in boil (boil)

oo as in food (food), croup (kroop), fluke (flook)

oor as in pruritus (proor-I-tŭs)

or as in organ (or-gān), wart (wort)

ow as in powder (pow-der), pouch (powch)

p as in pill (pil)

r as in rib (rib)

s as in skin (skin), cell (sel)

sh as in shock (shok), action (ak-shŏn)

t as in tone (tohn)

th as in bath (bahth)

th as in then (then)

u as in pulp (pulp), blood (blud)

ŭ as in typhus (ty-fŭs)

uu as in hook (huuk)

v as in vein (vayn)

w as in wind (wind)

y as in yeast (yeest) or, when preceded by a consonant, as in bite (byt)

yoo as in unit (yoo-nit), formula (form-yoo-lă)

yoor as in ureter (yoor-ee-ter)

yr as in fire (fyr)

z as in zinc (zink), glucose (gloo-kohz)

zh as in vision (vizh-ŏn)

A consonant is sometimes doubled to prevent accidental mispronunciation of a syllable resembling a familiar word; for example ass-id (acid), rather than as-id; ultră-sonn-iks (ultrasonics), rather than ultră-son-iks.

An apostrophe is used (i) between two consonants forming a syllable, as in den-t'l (dental), and (ii) between two letters when the syllable might otherwise be mispronounced through resembling a familiar word, as in th'e-ră-pi (therapy), th'y (thigh), and tal'k (talc).