--- title: "How to pronounce pharaoh | Murmur" description: "Pharaoh has two syllables in CMUdict, FAIR-oh or FAY-roh; the \"aoh\" ending is a plain \"oh\", not \"ay-oh\"." canonical: "https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/pharaoh" --- [Murmur](https://www.murmurtts.com/)/[Pronunciation](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)/pharaoh Pronunciation · Science and learning # How to pronounce pharaoh Pharaoh has two syllables in CMUdict, FAIR-oh or FAY-roh; the "aoh" ending is a plain "oh", not "ay-oh". [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 these 2 North American English pronunciations for **pharaoh**. Read each sequence from left to right. The numbers mark vowel stress: **1** primary, **2** secondary, **0** unstressed. Dictionary variant 1 `F EH1 R OW0` **Syllable estimate** 2 vowel nuclei **Primary stress** 1st vowel position Dictionary variant 2 `F EY1 R OW0` **Syllable estimate** 2 vowel nuclei **Primary stress** 1st vowel position [Check pharaoh in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pharaoh). 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 pharaoh in context Pharaoh fills history documentaries, Bible readings and museum audio guides. The letters after the r tempt readers into three syllables, "fair-ay-oh". Both entries have two, ending on oh. 1. The pharaoh ordered a new temple on the river bank. 2. Each pharaoh was buried with goods for the next life. ### A practice cue Two beats only: FAIR and oh. If a third syllable appears, picture the spelling as "pharo" for a few takes. ## Read the sound tokens Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of pharaoh. 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). `F`sound in **fee**consonant`EH`sound in **Ed**vowel`R`sound in **read**consonant`OW`sound in **oat**vowel`EY`sound in **ate**vowel 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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