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

PRONUNCIATION / Creative work

# How to pronounce harbinger

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

Dictionary variant 1

`HH AA1 R B IH0 N JH ER0`

**Syllable estimate**

3 vowel nuclei

**Primary stress**

1st vowel position

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

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 harbinger in context

Harbinger describes something that signals a later event or change. Seasonal writing, history, and plot narration use it to connect an early observation to what follows. The script should explain that connection, particularly when the sign was recognized only afterward rather than understood by the people in the scene.

1. The first returning swallow was a harbinger of spring.
2. The failed rehearsal became a harbinger of the production's difficulties.

### A practice cue

Test harbinger with the event it is said to signal. Listen to the preceding and following sentences as well, checking that the voice distinguishes a character's expectation from the narrator's hindsight about what happened later.

## Read the sound tokens

Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of harbinger. 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).

`HH`sound in **he**consonant`AA`sound in **odd**vowel`R`sound in **read**consonant`B`sound in **be**consonant`IH`sound in **it**vowel`N`sound in **knee**consonant`JH`sound in **gee**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 hyperbole](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/hyperbole)[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)

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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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