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

PRONUNCIATION / Creative work

# How to pronounce rhetoric

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

Dictionary variant 1

`R EH1 T ER0 IH0 K`

**Syllable estimate**

3 vowel nuclei

**Primary stress**

1st vowel position

[Check rhetoric in Merriam-Webster and listen to available dictionary audio](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rhetoric).

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 rhetoric in context

Rhetoric concerns the use of language to persuade or communicate effectively, though commentary can also use it critically for language that exceeds action. Speech analysis and political narration need to make that distinction clear. The delivery should show whether the passage is describing a technique or judging its practical effect.

1. The lecture examines the rhetoric of the opening address.
2. Residents wanted a timetable for repairs rather than more rhetoric.

### A practice cue

Read rhetoric once in an analytical sentence and once in a critical one if both senses appear. Listen for a change in framing supplied by the surrounding words, rather than using an automatically dismissive tone every time the term occurs.

## Read the sound tokens

Each example word below is a cue for the named sound, rather than a respelling of rhetoric. 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).

`R`sound in **read**consonant`EH`sound in **Ed**vowel`T`sound in **tea**consonant`ER`sound in **hurt**vowel`IH`sound in **it**vowel`K`sound in **key**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

[How to pronounce rhythm](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/rhythm)[How to pronounce awry](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/awry)[How to pronounce banal](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/banal)[How to pronounce cacophony](https://www.murmurtts.com/pronunciation/cacophony)

[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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