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How to pronounce column

Column is pronounced KAH-lum in American English and KOL-um in British English. It has two syllables with the stress on the first, and the final N is silent.

Say it yourself
  • 2 syllables
  • Stress on KAH
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

column

Two syllables, stress on the first

noun · a tall stone post that holds up a roof; a regular article in a newspaper; a line of items from top to bottom

  1. KAHkɑː (stressed)
  2. lumləm
  • US /ˈkɑː.ləm/KAH-lum Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈkɒl.əm/KOL-um Your device’s voice

IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.

Column, sound by sound

Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.

US American English/ˈkɑː.ləm/

  1. KAHstressed

    • /k/as in cat
    • /ɑː/as in father

  2. lum

    • /l/as in leg
    • /ə/as in about
    • /m/as in man

UK British English/ˈkɒl.əm/

  1. KOLstressed

    • /k/as in cat
    • /ɒ/as in hot (UK)
    • /l/as in leg

  2. um

    • /ə/as in about
    • /m/as in man

Say column yourself

Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes column, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.

Tip. End on the M: lum. The N is silent here, but you say it in columnist.

Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.

Say it

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column

    Common column pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say KAH-lum.

    • NotKOL-umn

      Saying the N after the M. The word ends on M.

    • NotKOL-yoom

      Saying it like volume. There is no Y sound and the second vowel is weak: lum.

    • Notko-LUM

      Stressing the second syllable, as in Spanish columna. Stress the first.

    Column in a sentence

    Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.

    • Write your name in the first column.

    • A tall stone column stands in the middle of the square.

    • She writes a weekly column for the local paper.

    Is the n in column silent?

    Yes. Column ends in mn, and at the end of an English word that pair is said as M alone. The same thing happens in autumn, hymn and solemn.

    The N comes from Latin columna, a pillar. English took the word through Old French columne, and the spelling kept the N even after people stopped saying it at the end.

    Listen for the N when a suffix follows: columnist is KAH-lum-nist (US) or KOL-um-nist (UK). In column itself, close your lips on the M and stop.

    Words that sound like column

    Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.

    More words with silent letters

    All 170 difficult words

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