Pronunciation · Creative work

How to pronounce ephemeral

Ephemeral stresses "FEM" in CMUdict, ih-FEM-er-ul (IH0 F EH1 M ER0 AH0 L), with ph as f and a light first syllable.

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The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

IH0 F EH1 M ER0 AH0 L

Syllable estimate: 4 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

Check ephemeral 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 ephemeral in context

Ephemeral describes things that last a short time, from art installations to social stories. Readers sometimes stress the first syllable or say the opening as a full "ee". In CMUdict the opening stays light and the weight falls on FEM.

The exhibit was ephemeral, gone after one weekend.
Most trends online are ephemeral and fade within a month.

Read the sound tokens

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

IHsound in itvowel

Fsound in feeconsonant

EHsound in Edvowel

Msound in meconsonant

ERsound in hurtvowel

AHsound in hutvowel

Lsound in leeconsonant

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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.

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Your plain-text audition worksheet

How to pronounce ephemeral

Word: ephemeral
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: IH0 F EH1 M ER0 AH0 L
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 4
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The exhibit was ephemeral, gone after one weekend.
Most trends online are ephemeral and fade within a month.

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.
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Practice note: Say ih-FEM slowly and then add er-ul. Read the word inside a full sentence to make sure the first syllable stays short.

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/ephemeral

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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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