How to pronounce “search”
Say “search” in one beat
search
/sɝtʃ/
The voice you hear here is American; the British form is /sɜːtʃ/ (see the table below), and a British voice is available in the app's settings.
- searchsɝtʃ
- IPA (American)
- /sɝtʃ/
- IPA (British)
- /sɜːtʃ/
- Respelling
- SURCH
- Syllables
- 1 — search
- Stress
- One syllable, so the whole word carries the beat — say /sɝtʃ/ in one unbroken piece rather than clipping the vowel.
- Part of speech
- noun, verb
- Difficulty
- Beginner — most learners get this on the first take
American and British are not the same here
/sɝtʃ/
/sɜːtʃ/
No audio here: sayit’s voice is American, so a British button would play the American word. Read the transcription instead.
What “search” means
- noun
the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone
- noun
an investigation seeking answers
“a thorough search of the ledgers revealed nothing”
- noun
an operation that determines whether one or more of a set of items has a specified property
“they wrote a program to do a table lookup”
Say it in a sentence
“They organized a search for the missing hiking group.”“search”, answered
How do you pronounce “search”?
“search” is pronounced /sɝtʃ/ (SURCH) in American English and /sɜːtʃ/ in British English — one syllable. It is one unbroken piece — /sɝtʃ/ — with no pause anywhere inside it.
How many syllables does “search” have?
One, despite the 2 vowel letters in the spelling. The whole word is /sɝtʃ/ — a single beat.
Is “search” said differently in British English?
Yes. American English says /sɝtʃ/ (SURCH); British English says /sɜːtʃ/. Both are correct — choose the accent you are learning and stay inside it.
What does “search” mean?
As a noun: the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone For example: “They organized a search for the missing hiking group.” It carries 2 other senses as well — all of them said the same way.
Where is the stress in “search”?
One syllable, so the whole word carries the beat — say /sɝtʃ/ in one unbroken piece rather than clipping the vowel.
Now say “search” 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.