Pronunciation · Work and business

How to pronounce status

Status has two accepted forms in CMUdict, STAT-us (S T AE1 T AH0 S) and STAY-tus (S T EY1 T AH0 S); only the first vowel differs.

Buy $49 Download free for Apple SiliconIntel Mac? Download here.Not sure? Apple menu > About This Mac shows your chip.

Free plan with Kokoro voices, 3,000 characters a day · 3-day Pro trial, then $49 once

The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

S T AE1 T AH0 S

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

Dictionary variant 2

S T EY1 T AH0 S

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

Check status 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 status in context

Status is a workplace staple: status reports, status meetings, project status updates. Listeners notice when one speaker switches between STAT-us and STAY-tus in the same recording. The dictionary accepts both, so choose one and stay with it across a script.

Send me a status update before the Friday call.
The ticket's status changed from open to resolved overnight.

Read the sound tokens

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

Ssound in seaconsonant

Tsound in teaconsonant

AEsound in atvowel

AHsound in hutvowel

EYsound in atevowel

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 status

Word: status
Dictionary variant: 1 of 2
CMUdict ARPABET: S T AE1 T AH0 S
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 2
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
Send me a status update before the Friday call.
The ticket's status changed from open to resolved overnight.

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: Pick the form you use in conversation and record both examples with it. Listen back for any switch between the two vowels mid-script.

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/status

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. 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

Build a pronunciation test suite for local TTS · Browse all word references