Pronunciation · Science and learning

How to pronounce antarctica

Antarctica has two CMUdict forms: ant-ARK-tih-kuh, with every sound, and an-AR-tih-kuh, which drops the t and the first k.

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The dictionary sound sequence

CMUdict lists these 2 North American English pronunciations for antarctica. Read each sequence from left to right. The numbers mark vowel stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

Dictionary variant 1

AE2 N T AA1 R K T IH0 K AH0

Syllable estimate: 4 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position
Secondary stress: 1st vowel position

Dictionary variant 2

AE2 N AA1 R T IH0 K AH0

Syllable estimate: 4 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position
Secondary stress: 1st vowel position

Check antarctica in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio.

Syllable counts come from vowel tokens; CMUdict does not supply syllable boundaries here. Variant order follows the dictionary and does not rank correctness. This lexicon does not represent every accent or context.

Use antarctica in context

Antarctica appears in geography lessons, nature documentaries and climate reporting. Many people say it without the first k, and some critics call that wrong, but both forms are in CMUdict with the full version first.

Scientists spend the winter at a research station in Antarctica.
The ice in Antarctica holds most of the world's fresh water.

Read the sound tokens

Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of antarctica. Unstressed vowels may sound reduced. These cues follow the CMU phoneme-set key (Appendix A).

AEsound in atvowel

Nsound in kneeconsonant

Tsound in teaconsonant

AAsound in oddvowel

Rsound in readconsonant

Ksound in keyconsonant

IHsound in itvowel

AHsound in hutvowel

Take it to your next recording

Make an audition worksheet

Select a dictionary variant for your checklist. The two original sentences retain their normal spelling; this worksheet helps you review a recording rather than forcing a speech engine to use phonemes.

Worksheet pronunciation variant

Your plain-text audition worksheet

How to pronounce antarctica

Word: antarctica
Dictionary variant: 1 of 2
CMUdict ARPABET: AE2 N T AA1 R K T IH0 K AH0
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 4
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
Scientists spend the winter at a research station in Antarctica.
The ice in Antarctica holds most of the world's fresh water.

REVIEW CHECKLIST
[ ] Read both sentences naturally; keep the source wording.
[ ] Compare the intended pronunciation with the selected dictionary variant.
[ ] Listen for vowel sounds, consonants, and word stress in context.
[ ] Check with a speaker or another dictionary when accent or meaning matters.
[ ] Generate and listen to a short Murmur sample before exporting the full script.

Practice note: For the full form, sound the k in "ARK" before the t. Slow down there if it blurs. If you use the shorter form, use it every time.

CMUdict is a North American English lexicon, not a recording or a complete accent guide.
Variant order is dictionary order; it is not a ranking of correctness.
Source: https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/cmudict.dict
Source commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690
License: https://www.murmurtts.com/downloads/cmudict-license.txt
Reference: https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/antarctica

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Dictionary source

The phonemes on this page come from CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The dictionary maintainers acknowledge that errors and omissions can remain; check another source or a speaker when the pronunciation matters.

CMUdict README · Included dictionary license

Source version and checksum

Commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690

Dictionary SHA-256: 81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22

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