PRONUNCIATION / Science and learning

How to pronounce exacerbate

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

The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

IH0 G Z AE1 S ER0 B EY2 T

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

Check exacerbate 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 exacerbate in context

Exacerbate means to make an existing problem or condition worse. It appears in reporting, scientific explanation, and policy discussion. A useful sentence identifies the original difficulty and the contributing factor, so listeners can follow the worsening relationship rather than hearing an abstract statement that something is bad.

Poor ventilation can exacerbate the problem described in the report.
The sudden price increase could exacerbate tensions between the partners.

Read the sound tokens

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

IHsound in itvowel

Gsound in greenconsonant

Zsound in zeeconsonant

AEsound in atvowel

Ssound in seaconsonant

ERsound in hurtvowel

Bsound in beconsonant

EYsound in atevowel

Tsound in teaconsonant

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 exacerbate

Word: exacerbate
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: IH0 G Z AE1 S ER0 B EY2 T
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 4
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
Poor ventilation can exacerbate the problem described in the report.
The sudden price increase could exacerbate tensions between the partners.

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: Test exacerbate with the named problem and its contributing factor. Compare it separately with exasperate if both occur in the script, then listen to the entire cause-and-effect sentence to confirm that the worsening relationship remains easy to follow.

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/exacerbate

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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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