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

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](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gesture).

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.

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

### A practice cue

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.

## 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)](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aria/Papers/MastersThesis.pdf#page=115).

`JH`sound in **gee**consonant`EH`sound in **Ed**vowel`S`sound in **sea**consonant`CH`sound in **cheese**consonant`ER`sound in **hurt**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 juxtaposition](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/juxtaposition)[How to pronounce awry](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/awry)[How to pronounce banal](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/banal)[How to pronounce cacophony](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/cacophony)

[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)

MURMUR FOR MAC

## 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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