PRONUNCIATION / Work and business

How to pronounce lieutenant

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

Dictionary variant 1

L UW0 T EH1 N AH0 N T

Syllable estimate: 3 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

Check lieutenant 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 lieutenant in context

Lieutenant appears as a military or organizational title and may introduce a named character in fiction or history. Its delivery can vary with the intended accent and institutional context. Narration should handle the title consistently and give the person's name and responsibilities enough space to remain intelligible.

The lieutenant checked the route with the survey team.
A letter from the lieutenant described the difficult winter crossing.

Read the sound tokens

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

Lsound in leeconsonant

UWsound in twovowel

Tsound in teaconsonant

EHsound in Edvowel

Nsound in kneeconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

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 lieutenant

Word: lieutenant
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: L UW0 T EH1 N AH0 N T
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 3
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The lieutenant checked the route with the survey team.
A letter from the lieutenant described the difficult winter crossing.

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: Choose a reference that matches your intended accent and context, then audition lieutenant with the person's full name. Review every occurrence together, especially if multiple voices speak the title, and make a deliberate consistency choice within the production.

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/lieutenant

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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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