Pronunciation

How to pronounce “population

“population” is pronounced /ˌpɑpjəˈleɪʃən/ (pah-pyuh-LAY-shuhn) in American English and /pɒpjʊleɪʃən/ in British English — 4 syllables, stressed on “at”.
The sound

Say “population” in 4 beats

Say it like this

population

/ˌpɑpjəˈleɪʃən/

The voice you hear here is American; the British form is /pɒpjʊleɪʃən/ (see the table below), and a British voice is available in the app's settings.

4 beats
  1. pop
  2. ulpjə
  3. atleɪstress
  4. ionʃən
IPA (American)
/ˌpɑpjəˈleɪʃən/
IPA (British)
/pɒpjʊleɪʃən/
Respelling
pah-pyuh-LAY-shuhn
Syllables
4 — pop-ul-AT-ion
Stress
Stress the third syllable: pop-ul-AT-ion. “at” is longer, louder and a step higher; the other syllables fall away from it.
Part of speech
noun
Difficulty
Beginner — most learners get this on the first take
Accents

American and British are not the same here

American

/ˌpɑpjəˈleɪʃən/

British

/pɒpjʊleɪʃən/

No audio here: sayit’s voice is American, so a British button would play the American word. Read the transcription instead.

Meaning

What “population” means

  1. noun

    the people who inhabit a territory or state

    the population seemed to be well fed and clothed

  2. noun

    a group of organisms of the same species inhabiting a given area

    they hired hunters to keep down the deer population

  3. noun

    (statistics) the entire aggregation of items from which samples can be drawn

    it is an estimate of the mean of the population

Say it in a sentence

The population of the town has doubled in twenty years.
Sound by sound

The sounds inside this word

8 sounds, in the order you say them

Each sound has its own page: where the tongue goes, what it is usually confused with, and words to drill it on.

Questions

population”, answered

How do you pronounce “population”?

“population” is pronounced /ˌpɑpjəˈleɪʃən/ (pah-pyuh-LAY-shuhn) in American English and /pɒpjʊleɪʃən/ in British English — 4 syllables, stressed on “at”. Build it as pop-ul-AT-ion, then run the third syllable a little longer than the rest and let the others reduce.

How many syllables does “population” have?

4: pop · ul · at · ion. The beat lands on the third, “at”.

Is “population” said differently in British English?

Yes. American English says /ˌpɑpjəˈleɪʃən/ (pah-pyuh-LAY-shuhn); British English says /pɒpjʊleɪʃən/. Both are correct — choose the accent you are learning and stay inside it.

What does “population” mean?

As a noun: the people who inhabit a territory or state For example: “the population seemed to be well fed and clothed” It carries 2 other senses as well — all of them said the same way.

Where is the stress in “population”?

Stress the third syllable: pop-ul-AT-ion. “at” is longer, louder and a step higher; the other syllables fall away from it.

Practise this word

Now say “population” 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.