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How to pronounce conscience

Conscience is pronounced KAHN-shuns in American English and KON-shuns in British English. It has two syllables with the stress on the first. The letters sci make one SH sound, so there is no science in the middle.

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

conscience

Two syllables, stress on the first

noun · the inner sense that tells you what is right and wrong

  1. KAHNkɑːn (stressed)
  2. shunsʃəns
  • US /ˈkɑːn.ʃəns/KAHN-shuns Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈkɒn.ʃəns/KON-shuns Your device’s voice

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

Conscience, sound by sound

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

US American English/ˈkɑːn.ʃəns/

  1. KAHNstressed

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

  2. shuns

    • /ʃ/as in shoe
    • /ə/as in about
    • /n/as in now
    • /s/as in see

UK British English/ˈkɒn.ʃəns/

  1. KONstressed

    • /k/as in cat
    • /ɒ/as in hot (UK)
    • /n/as in now

  2. shuns

    • /ʃ/as in shoe
    • /ə/as in about
    • /n/as in now
    • /s/as in see

Say conscience yourself

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

Tip. Two syllables only. The sci is one SH sound: shuns.

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

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conscience

    Common conscience pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say KAHN-shuns.

    • NotKON-sy-ens

      Reading con plus science, with three syllables. The sci is one SH sound.

    • Notkon-see-ENS

      Stressing the end, as in French or Spanish. Stress the first syllable and keep shuns weak.

    • NotKON-shus

      That is conscious. Conscience ends in an N plus S: shuns.

    Conscience 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.

    • I couldn't sleep with that on my conscience.

    • Let your conscience guide you.

    • She has a guilty conscience about the lie.

    Why doesn't conscience sound like science?

    Conscience comes from the Latin conscientia, knowing within yourself, from com, with, and scire, to know. Science comes from the same scire, which is why the spelling looks like con plus science.

    In English, though, s or c followed by i and another vowel often turns into one SH sound. It happens in conscious, special, social and delicious. In conscience the s, c and i all become a single SH, so the word has only two syllables.

    Keep three words apart: conscience, KAHN-shuns (US) or KON-shuns (UK); conscious, KAHN-shus or KON-shus; and conscientious, with four syllables and the stress on EN.

    Words that sound like conscience

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

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