Pronunciation · Science and learning

How to pronounce poinsettia

Poinsettia has four syllables in CMUdict, P OY2 N S EH1 T IY2 AH0, so the shortened "poin-SET-uh" drops the "ee" before the end.

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The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

P OY2 N S EH1 T IY2 AH0

Syllable estimate: 4 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position
Secondary stress: 1st and 3rd vowel positions

Check poinsettia 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 poinsettia in context

Holiday plant care guides and garden center ads name poinsettia every winter, and the casual three-syllable form is common. The reference keeps four syllables, with main stress on "SET" followed by "ee-uh". Including that extra syllable sounds careful in instructional audio.

Keep the poinsettia away from cold drafts near the door.
A red poinsettia sat at the center of the table.

Read the sound tokens

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

Psound in peeconsonant

OYsound in toyvowel

Nsound in kneeconsonant

Ssound in seaconsonant

EHsound in Edvowel

Tsound in teaconsonant

IYsound in eatvowel

AHsound in hutvowel

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 poinsettia

Word: poinsettia
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: P OY2 N S EH1 T IY2 AH0
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 4
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
Keep the poinsettia away from cold drafts near the door.
A red poinsettia sat at the center of the table.

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: Count the syllables on your fingers once, then say it smoothly with the weight on the second beat, "SET". The "ee-uh" ending should be light, not a new stress.

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/poinsettia

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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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