Pronunciation · Everyday language

How to pronounce tomato

Tomato has two CMUdict forms, tuh-MAY-toh (T AH0 M EY1 T OW2) and tuh-MAH-toh (T AH0 M AA1 T OW2); only the stressed vowel changes.

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The dictionary sound sequence

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

Dictionary variant 1

T AH0 M EY1 T OW2

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

Dictionary variant 2

T AH0 M AA1 T OW2

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

Check tomato 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 tomato in context

Tomato is the textbook example of a word with two accepted pronunciations, usually the ay of day in the US and the ah of father in Britain. Both are in CMUdict, so a recording only needs to choose one and stay with it.

Slice one tomato thinly for each sandwich.
The tomato plants need water every evening.

Read the sound tokens

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

Tsound in teaconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

Msound in meconsonant

EYsound in atevowel

OWsound in oatvowel

AAsound in oddvowel

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 tomato

Word: tomato
Dictionary variant: 1 of 2
CMUdict ARPABET: T AH0 M EY1 T OW2
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 3
Primary stress: 2nd vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
Slice one tomato thinly for each sandwich.
The tomato plants need water every evening.

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: Read both examples with the form you use at home, and keep it for every tomato that follows.

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/tomato

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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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