PRONUNCIATION / Work and business

How to pronounce volatile

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

Dictionary variant 1

V AA1 L AH0 T AH0 L

Syllable estimate: 3 vowel nuclei
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

Check volatile 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 volatile in context

Volatile describes something liable to change rapidly or unexpectedly, and in chemistry it can concern substances that vaporize readily. Financial commentary and laboratory lessons therefore need different framing. Make the surrounding subject explicit before discussing risks or behavior, so a clear pronunciation does not conceal an ambiguous explanation.

The report describes a volatile market with frequent price changes.
The instructor used a sealed container for the volatile liquid.

Read the sound tokens

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

Vsound in veeconsonant

AAsound in oddvowel

Lsound in leeconsonant

AHsound in hutvowel

Tsound in teaconsonant

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 volatile

Word: volatile
Dictionary variant: 1 of 1
CMUdict ARPABET: V AA1 L AH0 T AH0 L
Vowel nuclei / estimated syllables: 3
Primary stress: 1st vowel position

ORIGINAL AUDITION SCRIPT
The report describes a volatile market with frequent price changes.
The instructor used a sealed container for the volatile liquid.

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: Test volatile beside the market, material, or situation from your script. Listen to the explanation of what changes and why, then check nearby specialist vocabulary separately if the passage shifts between financial commentary and a chemical demonstration.

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/volatile

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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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