Pronunciation · Creative work

How to pronounce quixotic

Quixotic is kwik-SAH-tik in CMUdict (K W IH0 K S AA1 T IH0 K): the x is "ks", though the Spanish name Quixote does not use that sound.

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The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

K W IH0 K S AA1 T IH0 K

Syllable estimate: 3 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

Check quixotic 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 quixotic in context

Quixotic describes a noble but impractical plan, and it shows up in book reviews, essays and political commentary. Readers who know Don Quixote sometimes carry over a "key-HO-tee" style opening. The English adjective keeps a hard "ks" and stresses the middle syllable.

Their quixotic plan to restore the old railway won the town over.
Critics called the campaign quixotic, but it raised the money.

Read the sound tokens

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

Ksound in keyconsonant

Wsound in weconsonant

IHsound in itvowel

Ssound in seaconsonant

AAsound in oddvowel

Tsound in teaconsonant

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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.

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Your plain-text audition worksheet

How to pronounce quixotic

Word: quixotic
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: K W IH0 K S AA1 T IH0 K
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 3
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
Their quixotic plan to restore the old railway won the town over.
Critics called the campaign quixotic, but it raised the money.

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Practice note: Say the word as kwik plus SAH plus tik and land the stress on the middle. Then say Don Quixote next to it to feel how the two differ.

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/quixotic

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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.

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Source version and checksum

Commit: 74790861f652b15e4ac49015a90074ad62a27690

Dictionary SHA-256: 81917843c7f44ce2b094ac63873c2c7a4cf802040792c455ba3ca406891c3d22

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