Complete Pronouncing Dictionary

source: CMU dictionary and the complete file (dict) from github

The Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary is an open-source machine-readable pronunciation dictionary for North American English that contains over 134,000 words and their pronunciations. CMUdict is being actively maintained and expanded. We are open to suggestions, corrections and other input.

Its entries are particularly useful for speech recognition and synthesis, as it has mappings from words to their pronunciations in the ARPAbet phoneme set, a standard for English pronunciation. The current phoneme set contains 39 phonemes, vowels carry a lexical stress marker:

0    — No stress

1    — Primary stress

2    — Secondary stress

Bear in mind that this is a dictionary. If your word is not in it (or was misspelled) nothing will be returned. This applies to items such as numbers. This tool will try to come up with pronunciations for words not in the dictionary.

The current phoneme set has 39 phonemes, not counting varia due to lexical stress. This phoneme (or more accurately, phone) set is based on the ARPAbet symbol set developed for speech recognition uses. You can find a description of the ARPAbet on Wikipedia, as well information on how it relates to the standard IPA symbol set.

source: Arpabet
Vowels

Monophthongs
Arpabet IPA Word examples
AO ɔ off (AO1 F); fall (F AO1 L); frost (F R AO1 S T)
AA ɑ father (F AA1 DH ER), cot (K AA1 T)
IY i bee (B IY1); she (SH IY1)
UW u you (Y UW1); new (N UW1); food (F UW1 D)
EH ɛ red (R EH1 D); men (M EH1 N)
IH ɪ big (B IH1 G); win (W IH1 N)
UH ʊ should (SH UH1 D), could (K UH1 D)
AH ʌ but (B AH1 T), sun (S AH1 N)
ə sofa (S OW1 F AH0), alone (AH0 L OW1 N)
AX discus (D IH1 S K AX0 S); note distinction from discuss (D IH0 S K AH1 S)
AE æ at (AE1 T); fast (F AE1 S T)
Diphthongs
Arpabet IPA Word Examples
EY say (S EY1); eight (EY1 T)
AY my (M AY1); why (W AY1); ride (R AY1 D)
OW show (SH OW1); coat (K OW1 T)
AW how (HH AW1); now (N AW1)
OY ɔɪ boy (B OY1); toy (T OY1)
R-colored vowels
Arpabet IPA Word Examples
ER ɝ her (HH ER0); bird (B ER1 D); hurt (HH ER1 T), nurse (N ER1 S)
AXR ɚ father (F AA1 DH ER); coward (K AW1 ER D)
EH R ɛr air (EH1 R); where (W EH1 R); hair (HH EH1 R)
UH R ʊr cure (K Y UH1 R); bureau (B Y UH1 R OW0), detour (D IH0 T UH1 R)
AO R ɔr more (M AO1 R); bored (B AO1 R D); chord (K AO1 R D)
AA R ɑr large (L AA1 R JH); hard (HH AA1 R D)
IH R or IY R ɪr ear (IY1 R); near (N IH1 R)
AW R aʊr This seems to be a rarely used r-controlled vowel. In some dialects flower (F L AW1 R; in other dialects F L AW1 ER0)

Consonants

Stops
Arpabet IPA Word Examples
P p pay (P EY1)
B b buy (B AY1)
T t take (T EY1 K)
D d day (D EY1)
K k key (K IY1)
G ɡ go (G OW1)
Affricates
Arpabet IPA Word Examples
CH chair (CH EH1 R)
JH just (JH AH1 S T); gym (JH IH1 M)
Fricatives
Arpabet IPA Word Examples
F f for (F AO1 R)
V v very (V EH1 R IY0)
TH θ thanks (TH AE1 NG K S); Thursday (TH ER1 Z D EY2)
DH ð that (DH AE1 T); the (DH AH0); them (DH EH1 M)
S s say (S EY1)
Z z zoo (Z UW1)
SH ʃ show (SH OW1)
ZH ʒ measure (M EH1 ZH ER0); pleasure (P L EH1 ZH ER)
HH h house (HH AW1 S)
Nasals
Arpabet IPA Word Examples
M m man (M AE1 N)
EM keep ’em (K IY1 P EM)
N n no (N OW1)
EN button (B AH1 T EN)
NG ŋ sing (S IH1 NG)
ENG ŋ̍ Washington (W AO1 SH ENG T EN)
Liquids
Arpabet IPA Word Examples
L ɫ late (L EY1 T)
EL ɫ̩ bottle (B AO1 DX EL)
R r or ɹ run (R AH1 N)
DX ɾ wetter (W EH1 DX AXR)
NX ɾ̃ wintergreen (W IY2 NX AXR G R IY1 N)
Semivowels
Arpabet IPA Word Examples
Y j yes (Y EH1 S)
W w way (W EY1)
Q ʔ glottal stop (uh-oh – ʔʌʔoʊ)
(missing) hw or ʍ “when” etc. in some dialects

Pronunciation Hack

Pronunciation hack to find out the proper pronunciation for some homophone words:

  1. CAN & CAN’T

    Screen Shot 2016-09-01 at 10.34.37 AMread ‘I can’ as if without space like ‘Ikin’read “I can’t” with a space (and with ‘t at the end)
  2. THESE & THIS
  3. TWO, TO & TOO
  4. THOUGH, THROUGH, THOUGHT & TOUGH 
  5. WHINE & WINE
  6. THAT’D
  7. GOT & GOD
  8. THREE & TREE
  9. WH– WHAT, WHICH, WHY, WHETHER, WHEN, WHO, ETC
    WH– use longer like whaaat, whiiich, wheeether stress the ‘wh’..etc.
    WERE use simple were. different from WHERE (sound like wheeere)
    WHEELS -> wheeells
  10. BREAD, BREATH, BREADTH
  11. THIN & TIN
  12. TH– THIN, THICK, THAT, THIS, etc
  13. prefix —TH
    WITH,
  14. KNOW & NOW
  15. TELL, TALE & TAIL
  16. Wheat with white
    Prefix -t in test, post, -ment, might
    Prefix -nk in think, pink
    prefix -ct in prospect, affect, correct, compact
    Prefix -ck in back
    Join vs joint
    Live vs live vs life vs leave
    Birth vs bird
    Add vs ad
    Twenty is read like twenny?
    Things vs think
  17. Man vs men
    Prefix -th in with, breadth, both
    Prefix -ht in thought, brought, right
    What is Swa sound
    What is in english: “apakah kamu ikut kurban tahun ini?” Do you want to commemorate the feast of sacrifice this year?
    Feast vs fist
    Want vs won’t
    -ght- Bought, daughter, laughter, although, enough
    Outrageous
  18. Sheet vs shit
    Beach vs bitch
    Phonetic chart
    Even vs event
    Sea vs see
    Plan vs plane vs plain
    But vs butt
    Die vs dye
    Block vs bloke
    Whine vs wine
    That’d
    Got vs god
    Strange vs strength
  19. It vs eat
    Sea vs see
    Side vs site
    Waste vs waist
    Praise vs price
    Geek vs gig
    Heat vs hit
    Coast vs cost