PRONUNCIATION / Work and business

How to pronounce hierarchy

Check hierarchy pronunciation with CMUdict sound tokens and stress, then practise two original sentences and download a voiceover audition worksheet.

The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

HH AY1 ER0 AA2 R K IY0

Syllable estimate: 4 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 1st vowel position
Secondary stress: 3rd vowel position

Dictionary variant 2

HH AY1 R AA2 R K IY0

Syllable estimate: 3 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 1st vowel position
Secondary stress: 2nd vowel position

Check hierarchy 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 hierarchy in context

Hierarchy describes an arrangement of levels, often involving authority, importance, or containment. Organizational explainers and design tutorials should name the relationship between those levels. Spoken narration needs clear transitions when moving up or down the structure, particularly if the audience cannot see an accompanying chart.

The diagram shows the hierarchy of teams within the organization.
A clear visual hierarchy helps readers find the main instruction.

Read the sound tokens

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

HHsound in heconsonant

AYsound in hidevowel

ERsound in hurtvowel

AAsound in oddvowel

Rsound in readconsonant

Ksound in keyconsonant

IYsound in eatvowel

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 hierarchy

Word: hierarchy
Dictionary variant: 1 of 2
CMUdict ARPABET: HH AY1 ER0 AA2 R K IY0
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 4
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The diagram shows the hierarchy of teams within the organization.
A clear visual hierarchy helps readers find the main instruction.

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: Audition hierarchy alongside the named levels or design elements in your explanation. Check the complete list for intelligible transitions, and test modest pauses between levels if the first reading makes authority, importance, or nesting relationships difficult to follow.

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/hierarchy

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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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