---
title: "How to pronounce esoteric | Murmur"
description: "Check esoteric pronunciation with CMUdict sound tokens and stress, then practise two original sentences and download a voiceover audition worksheet."
canonical: "https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/esoteric"
---
[Murmur](https://www.murmurtts.com/)/[Pronunciation](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)/esoteric

PRONUNCIATION / Science and learning

# How to pronounce esoteric

Check esoteric pronunciation with CMUdict sound tokens and stress, then practise two original sentences and download a voiceover audition worksheet.

## The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

`EH2 S AH0 T EH1 R IH0 K`

**Syllable estimate**

4 vowel nuclei

**Primary stress**

3rd vowel position

**Secondary stress**

1st vowel position

Dictionary variant 2

`EH2 S OW0 T EH1 R IH0 K`

**Syllable estimate**

4 vowel nuclei

**Primary stress**

3rd vowel position

**Secondary stress**

1st vowel position

[Check esoteric in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/esoteric).

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 esoteric in context

Esoteric describes knowledge or material understood by a relatively small, specialized group. It can appear in discussions of scholarship, hobbies, or artistic traditions. A narrator should explain the subject and audience rather than implying that unfamiliarity alone makes an idea profound, inaccessible, or deserving of dismissal.

1. The guide explains an esoteric printing technique in ordinary language.
2. Their conversation drifted toward an esoteric dispute about manuscript dating.

### A practice cue

Audition esoteric with the named technique or debate, followed by its explanation. Listen for a welcoming pace and tone if the passage introduces beginners to the subject, and check that the unfamiliar terminology does not arrive as an unbroken list.

## Read the sound tokens

Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of esoteric. Unstressed vowels may sound reduced. These cues follow the [CMU phoneme-set key (Appendix A)](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aria/Papers/MastersThesis.pdf#page=115).

`EH`sound in **Ed**vowel`S`sound in **sea**consonant`AH`sound in **hut**vowel`T`sound in **tea**consonant`R`sound in **read**consonant`IH`sound in **it**vowel`K`sound in **key**consonant`OW`sound in **oat**vowel

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.

Copying and downloading happen in your browser. No script upload or audio generation is needed.

## Dictionary source

The phonemes on this page come from [CMU Pronouncing Dictionary](https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/cmudict.dict). The dictionary maintainers acknowledge that errors and omissions can remain; check another source or a speaker when the pronunciation matters.

[CMUdict README](https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/README) · [Included dictionary license](https://www.murmurtts.com/downloads/cmudict-license.txt)

Source version and checksum

Commit: `74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690`

Dictionary SHA-256: `81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22`

## Keep practising

[How to pronounce asterisk](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/asterisk)[How to pronounce bourgeois](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/bourgeois)[How to pronounce chameleon](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/chameleon)[How to pronounce chrysanthemum](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/chrysanthemum)

[Build a pronunciation test suite for local TTS](https://www.murmurtts.com/blog/pronunciation-test-suite-local-tts) · [Browse all word references](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)

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## Check the word in a real voiceover.

Murmur generates speech locally on Apple Silicon Macs. Try your audition sentences with your chosen model and voice, listen for pronunciation, and review the result before exporting. A dictionary sequence does not guarantee a model’s output.

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