PRONUNCIATION / Creative work

How to pronounce poignant

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

Dictionary variant 1

P OY1 N Y AH0 N T

Syllable estimate: 2 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

Check poignant 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 poignant in context

Poignant describes something that evokes a strong feeling, often sadness or tenderness. Reviews, memoir introductions, and literary commentary use it to characterize a moment rather than explain the entire emotional response. A restrained reading can leave room for the scene or quoted detail to communicate why the moment matters.

The final photograph gives the exhibition a poignant ending.
Her letter includes a poignant memory of their first journey together.

Read the sound tokens

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

Psound in peeconsonant

OYsound in toyvowel

Nsound in kneeconsonant

Ysound in yieldconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

Tsound in teaconsonant

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 poignant

Word: poignant
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: P OY1 N Y AH0 N T
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 2
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The final photograph gives the exhibition a poignant ending.
Her letter includes a poignant memory of their first journey together.

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: Try poignant with the complete detail that follows it, using both a quiet and a more expressive reading. Listen for whether the description invites an emotional response without telling the audience exactly how to feel before they hear the scene.

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/poignant

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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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