Pronunciation · Creative work

How to pronounce facetious

Facetious is fuh-SEE-shus in CMUdict (F AH0 S IY1 SH AH0 S): three syllables, with the "ti" read as "sh".

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The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

F AH0 S IY1 SH AH0 S

Syllable estimate: 3 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

Check facetious 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 facetious in context

Facetious describes a joke made at the wrong moment, and it lands in reviews, op-eds and workplace conversations. The ti in the middle tempts readers into four syllables, fa-see-tee-us. CMUdict counts three, with the stress on SEE.

I was being facetious when I suggested we cancel the holidays.
Her facetious reply did not go over well in the meeting.

Read the sound tokens

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

Fsound in feeconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

Ssound in seaconsonant

IYsound in eatvowel

SHsound in sheconsonant

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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 facetious

Word: facetious
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: F AH0 S IY1 SH AH0 S
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 3
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
I was being facetious when I suggested we cancel the holidays.
Her facetious reply did not go over well in the meeting.

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: Tap out three beats: fuh, SEE, shus. If a fourth beat appears, fold the ti into the sh.

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/facetious

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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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