PRONUNCIATION / Creative work

How to pronounce gesture

Check gesture 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 gesture. Read each sequence from left to right. The numbers mark vowel stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

Dictionary variant 1

JH EH1 S CH ER0

Syllable estimate: 2 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

Check gesture 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 gesture in context

Gesture describes a bodily movement that communicates something and can also refer to an action with symbolic meaning. Scene narration should identify the movement, its recipient, and its context. A narrator can suggest intent through tone, but should leave ambiguous gestures open when the text deliberately avoids interpreting them.

A small gesture toward the door ended the conversation.
The offer was a gesture of friendship after their disagreement.

Read the sound tokens

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

JHsound in geeconsonant

EHsound in Edvowel

Ssound in seaconsonant

CHsound in cheeseconsonant

ERsound in hurtvowel

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 gesture

Word: gesture
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: JH EH1 S CH ER0
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 2
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
A small gesture toward the door ended the conversation.
The offer was a gesture of friendship after their disagreement.

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 gesture with the physical movement or symbolic action in your script. Compare a literal description with an interpretive reading, listening for whether the voice adds certainty about intention that the surrounding scene leaves deliberately unresolved.

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/gesture

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. 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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