---
title: "How to pronounce poignant | Murmur"
description: "Check poignant pronunciation with CMUdict sound tokens and stress, then practise two original sentences and download a voiceover audition worksheet."
canonical: "https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/poignant"
---
[Murmur](https://www.murmurtts.com/)/[Pronunciation](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)/poignant

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](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poignant).

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.

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

### A practice cue

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.

## 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)](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aria/Papers/MastersThesis.pdf#page=115).

`P`sound in **pee**consonant`OY`sound in **toy**vowel`N`sound in **knee**consonant`Y`sound in **yield**consonant`AH`sound in **hut**vowel`T`sound in **tea**consonant

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.

[CMUdict README](https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict/blob/74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690/README) · [Included dictionary license](https://www.murmurtts.com/downloads/cmudict-license.txt)

Source version and checksum

Commit: `74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690`

Dictionary SHA-256: `81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22`

## Keep practising

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[Build a pronunciation test suite for local TTS](https://www.murmurtts.com/blog/pronunciation-test-suite-local-tts) · [Browse all word references](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation)

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## Check the word in a real voiceover.

Murmur generates speech locally on Apple Silicon Macs. Try your audition sentences with your chosen model and voice, listen for pronunciation, and review the result before exporting. A dictionary sequence does not guarantee a model’s output.

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