Pronunication Key

A list of the pronunciation symbols used in this Dictionary is given below in the column headed AHD. The column headed EXAMPLES contains words chosen to illustrate how the AHD symbols are pronounced. The letters that correspond in sound to the AHD symbols are shown in boldface. Although similar, the AHD and IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols are not precisely the same because they were conceived for different purposes.

EXAMPLES	AHD		EXAMPLES	AHD
pat			boot
pay			out	ou
care	âr		pop	p
father	ä		roar	r
bib	b		sauce	s
church	ch		ship, dish	sh
deed, milled	d		tight, stopped	t
pet			thin	th
bee			this	th
fife, phase, rough	f		cut
gag	g		urge, term, firm, word, heard	ûr
hat	h		valve	v
which	hw		with	w
pit			yes	y
pie, by			zebra, xylem	z
pier	îr		vision, pleasure, garage	zh
judge	j		about, item, edible, gallop, circus
kick, cat, pique	k		butter	r
lid, needle*	l (nd'l)
mum	m
no, sudden*	n (sd'n)
thing	ng
pot			FOREIGN	AHD
toe			French feu, German schön
caught, paw, for, horrid, hoarse**	ô		French tu, German über	ü
noise	oi		German ich, Scottish loch
took			French bon (bô)***

*In English the consonants l and n often constitute complete syllables by themselves.

**Regional pronunciations of -or- vary. In pairs such as for, four; horse, hoarse; and morning, mourning, the vowel varies between (ô) and (). In this Dictionary these vowels are represented as follows: for (fôr), four (fôr, fr); horse (hôrs), hoarse (hôrs, hrs); and morning (môrning), mourning (môrning, mr-). Other words for which both forms are shown include more, glory, and borne. A similar variant occurs in words such as coral, forest, and horrid, where the pronunciation of o before r varies between (ô) and (). In these words the (ôr) pronunciation is given first: forest (fôrist, fr-).

***The Dictionary uses to reflect that the preceding vowel is nasalized.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.