Pronunciation · Everyday language

How to pronounce mozzarella

The zz in mozzarella is a "ts" in CMUdict: maht-suh-REL-uh (M AA2 T S AH0 R EH1 L AH0), with the stress on "REL".

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The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

M AA2 T S AH0 R EH1 L AH0

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

Check mozzarella 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 mozzarella in context

Mozzarella is on pizza menus, salad recipes and grocery labels. Most English speakers say the zz as a z, giving "mozz-a-rella". CMUdict follows the Italian pattern and turns the double z into ts.

Tear the mozzarella over the tomatoes.
The pizza comes with fresh mozzarella and basil.

Read the sound tokens

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

Msound in meconsonant

AAsound in oddvowel

Tsound in teaconsonant

Ssound in seaconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

Rsound in readconsonant

EHsound in Edvowel

Lsound in leeconsonant

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 mozzarella

Word: mozzarella
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: M AA2 T S AH0 R EH1 L AH0
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 4
Primary stress: 3rd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
Tear the mozzarella over the tomatoes.
The pizza comes with fresh mozzarella and basil.

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: Say "maht", then "suh", then REL-uh. Many listeners expect a z. Decide up front which form your audience will hear.

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/mozzarella

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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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