PRONUNCIATION / Creative work

How to pronounce macabre

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

Dictionary variant 1

M AH0 K AA1 B R AH0

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

Dictionary variant 2

M AH0 K AA1 B ER0

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

Check macabre 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 macabre in context

Macabre describes material associated with death or disturbing grimness, often in art, stories, and unusual humor. A narrator should identify the image or subject that gives the passage this quality. The intended mood may be unsettling, analytical, or darkly comic, so an automatic horror delivery can misrepresent it.

The exhibition includes a macabre engraving of a deserted banquet.
His macabre joke left the table briefly silent.

Read the sound tokens

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

Msound in meconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

Ksound in keyconsonant

AAsound in oddvowel

Bsound in beconsonant

Rsound in readconsonant

ERsound in hurtvowel

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 macabre

Word: macabre
Dictionary variant: 1 of 2
CMUdict ARPABET: M AH0 K AA1 B R AH0
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 3
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The exhibition includes a macabre engraving of a deserted banquet.
His macabre joke left the table briefly silent.

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 macabre inside your actual art description or scene, using a reference for the intended accent. Compare analytical, unsettling, and dry delivery as relevant, and choose the version that supports the specific image without adding a generic horror performance.

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/macabre

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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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