--- title: "How to pronounce hiatus | Murmur" description: "Hiatus is hy-AY-tus in CMUdict (HH AY0 EY1 T AH0 S), three syllables with the stress on the long \"ay\", not \"hy-AT-us\"." canonical: "https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/hiatus" --- [Murmur](https://www.murmurtts.com/)/[Pronunciation](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)/hiatus Pronunciation · Creative work # How to pronounce hiatus Hiatus is hy-AY-tus in CMUdict (HH AY0 EY1 T AH0 S), three syllables with the stress on the long "ay", not "hy-AT-us". [Buy $49](https://murmur-licenses.tarunyadav9761.workers.dev/checkout)[Download free for Apple Silicon (3-day Pro trial)](https://murmur-updates.tarunyadav9761.workers.dev/download/latest)Intel Mac? [Download here](https://murmur-updates.tarunyadav9761.workers.dev/download/intel).Not sure? Apple menu > About This Mac shows your chip. Free plan with Kokoro voices, 3,000 characters a day · 3-day Pro trial, then $49 once ## The dictionary sound sequence CMUdict lists this North American English pronunciation for **hiatus**. Read each sequence from left to right. The numbers mark vowel stress: **1** primary, **2** secondary, **0** unstressed. Dictionary variant 1 `HH AY0 EY1 T AH0 S` **Syllable estimate** 3 vowel nuclei **Primary stress** 2nd vowel position [Check hiatus in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hiatus). 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 hiatus in context Hiatus shows up in entertainment news, podcast updates and band announcements about a break. Readers often give the second syllable a short a. That middle vowel should be the ay of day, and it carries the stress. 1. The band returned after a five-year hiatus. 2. The podcast is on hiatus until the new season starts. ### A practice cue Say hi, then AY, then tus, and put the weight on AY. Check that the middle vowel does not shorten to the a in cat. ## Read the sound tokens Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of hiatus. 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`AY`sound in **hide**vowel`EY`sound in **ate**vowel`T`sound in **tea**consonant`AH`sound in **hut**vowel`S`sound in **sea**consonant 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. 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