How to pronounce “ostensible”
Say “ostensible” in 4 beats
ostensible
/ɑˈstɛnsəbəl/
The voice you hear here is American; the British form is /ɒstɛnsɪbəl/ (see the table below), and a British voice is available in the app's settings.
- osɑ
- tenstɛnstress
- sibsə
- lebəl
- IPA (American)
- /ɑˈstɛnsəbəl/
- IPA (British)
- /ɒstɛnsɪbəl/
- Respelling
- ah-STEN-suh-buhl
- Syllables
- 4 — os-TEN-sib-le
- Stress
- Stress the second syllable: os-TEN-sib-le. “ten” is longer, louder and a step higher; the other syllables fall away from it.
- Part of speech
- adjective
- Difficulty
- Legend — spelling and sound part company here
American and British are not the same here
/ɑˈstɛnsəbəl/
/ɒstɛnsɪbəl/
No audio here: sayit’s voice is American, so a British button would play the American word. Read the transcription instead.
What “ostensible” means
- adjective
appearing as such but not necessarily so
“for all his apparent wealth he had no money to pay the rent”
- adjective
represented or appearing as such; pretended
“His ostensible purpose was charity, his real goal popularity”
Say it in a sentence
“The ostensible reason was rain, but nobody quite believed it.”“ostensible”, answered
How do you pronounce “ostensible”?
“ostensible” is pronounced /ɑˈstɛnsəbəl/ (ah-STEN-suh-buhl) in American English and /ɒstɛnsɪbəl/ in British English — 4 syllables, stressed on “ten”. Build it as os-TEN-sib-le, then run the second syllable a little longer than the rest and let the others reduce.
How many syllables does “ostensible” have?
4: os · ten · sib · le. The beat lands on the second, “ten”.
Is “ostensible” said differently in British English?
Yes. American English says /ɑˈstɛnsəbəl/ (ah-STEN-suh-buhl); British English says /ɒstɛnsɪbəl/. Both are correct — choose the accent you are learning and stay inside it.
What does “ostensible” mean?
As an adjective: appearing as such but not necessarily so For example: “for all his apparent wealth he had no money to pay the rent” It carries 1 other sense as well — all of them said the same way.
Where is the stress in “ostensible”?
Stress the second syllable: os-TEN-sib-le. “ten” is longer, louder and a step higher; the other syllables fall away from it.
Now say “ostensible” 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.