How to pronounce “tsunami”
Say “tsunami” in 3 beats
tsunami
/suˈnɑmi/
The voice you hear here is American; the British form is /tsuːˈnɑːmi/ (see the table below), and a British voice is available in the app's settings.
- tsunsu
- amnɑstress
- imi
- IPA (American)
- /suˈnɑmi/
- IPA (British)
- /tsuːˈnɑːmi/
- Respelling
- soo-NAH-mee
- Syllables
- 3 — tsun-AM-i
- Stress
- Stress the second syllable: tsun-AM-i. “am” 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
/suˈnɑmi/
/tsuːˈnɑːmi/
No audio here: sayit’s voice is American, so a British button would play the American word. Read the transcription instead.
Where “tsunami” goes wrong
- Often heard
“tuh-SOO-nah-mee”
the t is barely sounded in English: soo-NAH-mee
What “tsunami” means
- noun
a cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption
“a colossal tsunami destroyed the Minoan civilization in minutes”
Say it in a sentence
“The tsunami warning reached the coast twenty minutes before the wave.”“tsunami”, answered
How do you pronounce “tsunami”?
“tsunami” is pronounced /suˈnɑmi/ (soo-NAH-mee) in American English and /tsuːˈnɑːmi/ in British English — 3 syllables, stressed on “am”. Build it as tsun-AM-i, then run the second syllable a little longer than the rest and let the others reduce.
How many syllables does “tsunami” have?
3: tsun · am · i. The beat lands on the second, “am”. Read letter by letter it looks like 4 (tuh-SOO-nah-mee), and that careful version is not wrong — but ordinary speech runs it to 3.
Is “tsunami” said differently in British English?
Yes. American English says /suˈnɑmi/ (soo-NAH-mee); British English says /tsuːˈnɑːmi/. Both are correct — choose the accent you are learning and stay inside it.
What does “tsunami” mean?
As a noun: a cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption For example: “a colossal tsunami destroyed the Minoan civilization in minutes”
Where is the stress in “tsunami”?
Stress the second syllable: tsun-AM-i. “am” is longer, louder and a step higher; the other syllables fall away from it.
Now say “tsunami” 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.