How to pronounce “exaggerate”
Say “exaggerate” in 4 beats
exaggerate
/ɪɡˈzædʒɚˌeɪt/
The voice you hear here is American; the British form is /ɛɡzadʒəɹeɪt/ (see the table below), and a British voice is available in the app's settings.
- ɪɡɪɡ
- zæzæstress
- dʒɚdʒɚ
- eɪteɪt
- IPA (American)
- /ɪɡˈzædʒɚˌeɪt/
- IPA (British)
- /ɛɡzadʒəɹeɪt/
- Respelling
- ig-ZA-juh-ayt
- Syllables
- 4 — ɪɡ-ZÆ-dʒɚ-eɪt
- Stress
- Stress the second syllable: ɪɡ-ZÆ-dʒɚ-eɪt. “zæ” is longer, louder and a step higher; the other syllables fall away from it.
- Part of speech
- verb
- Difficulty
- Pro — the sounds are ordinary, the rhythm is where it slips
American and British are not the same here
/ɪɡˈzædʒɚˌeɪt/
/ɛɡzadʒəɹeɪt/
No audio here: sayit’s voice is American, so a British button would play the American word. Read the transcription instead.
What “exaggerate” means
- verb
to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth
“tended to romanticize and exaggerate this `gracious Old South' imagery”
- verb
do something to an excessive degree
“He overdid it last night when he did 100 pushups”
Say it in a sentence
“He tends to exaggerate the size of every fish he catches.”“exaggerate”, answered
How do you pronounce “exaggerate”?
“exaggerate” is pronounced /ɪɡˈzædʒɚˌeɪt/ (ig-ZA-juh-ayt) in American English and /ɛɡzadʒəɹeɪt/ in British English — 4 syllables, stressed on “zæ”. Build it as ɪɡ-ZÆ-dʒɚ-eɪt, then run the second syllable a little longer than the rest and let the others reduce.
How many syllables does “exaggerate” have?
4: ɪɡ · zæ · dʒɚ · eɪt. The beat lands on the second, “zæ”.
Is “exaggerate” said differently in British English?
Yes. American English says /ɪɡˈzædʒɚˌeɪt/ (ig-ZA-juh-ayt); British English says /ɛɡzadʒəɹeɪt/. Both are correct — choose the accent you are learning and stay inside it.
What does “exaggerate” mean?
As a verb: to enlarge beyond bounds or the truth For example: “tended to romanticize and exaggerate this `gracious Old South' imagery” It carries 1 other sense as well — all of them said the same way.
Where is the stress in “exaggerate”?
Stress the second syllable: ɪɡ-ZÆ-dʒɚ-eɪt. “zæ” is longer, louder and a step higher; the other syllables fall away from it.
Now say “exaggerate” 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.