Pronunciation · Work and business

How to pronounce subpoena

The b in subpoena is silent: CMUdict gives suh-PEE-nuh (S AH0 P IY1 N AH0), three syllables with the stress on "PEE".

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The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

S AH0 P IY1 N AH0

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

Check subpoena 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 subpoena in context

Subpoena is a court order to appear or hand over records, and it runs through legal dramas, news reports and compliance memos. The spelling suggests "sub-POE-na", but the b disappears and the "oe" becomes a long ee.

The committee issued a subpoena for the company's emails.
He was served with a subpoena the morning before the hearing.

Read the sound tokens

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

Ssound in seaconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

Psound in peeconsonant

IYsound in eatvowel

Nsound in kneeconsonant

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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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How to pronounce subpoena

Word: subpoena
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: S AH0 P IY1 N AH0
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 3
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The committee issued a subpoena for the company's emails.
He was served with a subpoena the morning before the hearing.

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: Picture the word spelled "suh-peena" and read it that way. Keep the lips apart after the first syllable. If you hear a b, start again more slowly.

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/subpoena

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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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