How to pronounce “deficit”
Say “deficit” in 3 beats
deficit
/ˈdɛfəsət/
The voice you hear here is American; the British form is /dɛfɪsɪt/ (see the table below), and a British voice is available in the app's settings.
- defdɛstress
- icfə
- itsət
- IPA (American)
- /ˈdɛfəsət/
- IPA (British)
- /dɛfɪsɪt/
- Respelling
- DE-fuh-suht
- Syllables
- 3 — DEF-ic-it
- Stress
- Stress the first syllable: DEF-ic-it. “def” is longer, louder and a step higher; the other syllables fall away from it.
- Part of speech
- noun
- Difficulty
- Pro — the sounds are ordinary, the rhythm is where it slips
American and British are not the same here
/ˈdɛfəsət/
/dɛfɪsɪt/
No audio here: sayit’s voice is American, so a British button would play the American word. Read the transcription instead.
What “deficit” means
- noun
the property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required
“new blood vessels bud out from the already dilated vascular bed to make up the nutritional deficit”
- noun
a deficiency or failure in neurological or mental functioning
“the people concerned have a deficit in verbal memory”
- noun
(sports) the score by which a team or individual is losing
Say it in a sentence
“The club ended the year with a small deficit.”“deficit”, answered
How do you pronounce “deficit”?
“deficit” is pronounced /ˈdɛfəsət/ (DE-fuh-suht) in American English and /dɛfɪsɪt/ in British English — 3 syllables, stressed on “def”. Build it as DEF-ic-it, then run the first syllable a little longer than the rest and let the others reduce.
How many syllables does “deficit” have?
3: def · ic · it. The beat lands on the first, “def”.
Is “deficit” said differently in British English?
Yes. American English says /ˈdɛfəsət/ (DE-fuh-suht); British English says /dɛfɪsɪt/. Both are correct — choose the accent you are learning and stay inside it.
What does “deficit” mean?
As a noun: the property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required For example: “new blood vessels bud out from the already dilated vascular bed to make up the nutritional deficit” It carries 2 other senses as well — all of them said the same way.
Where is the stress in “deficit”?
Stress the first syllable: DEF-ic-it. “def” is longer, louder and a step higher; the other syllables fall away from it.
Now say “deficit” and see every sound
Record it once and sayit lines your audio up against the target sound by sound — what landed, what slipped, and what it sounded like instead.