design
noun and verb · a plan or drawing for how something will look or work; to make such a plan
- dihdɪ
- ZINEzaɪn (stressed)
- dihdɪ
- ZINEzaɪn (stressed)
- US /dɪˈzaɪn/dih-ZINE Recorded voice
- UK /dɪˈzaɪn/dih-ZINE Your device’s voice
How to pronounce design
Design is pronounced dih-ZINE in both American and British English. It has two syllables with the stress on the second. The S sounds like Z and the G is silent.
- 2 syllables
- Stress on ZINE
- US and UK IPA
- Checked in Cambridge and Oxford
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.
Design, sound by sound
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
USUK American and British English/dɪˈzaɪn/
dih
- /d/as in did
- /ɪ/as in sit
ZINEstressed
- /z/as in zoo
- /aɪ/as in my
- /n/as in now
Say design yourself
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes design, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. The second syllable is ZINE, rhyming with fine. S is a Z sound and the G is silent.
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Common design pronunciation mistakes
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say dih-ZINE.
Not
dih-SINEUsing an S sound. Between two vowels here, the S is a Z: dih-ZINE.
Not
dee-ZIG-nSaying the G and a short i. The vowel is the eye sound in fine, and the G is silent.
Not
DEE-zineStressing the first syllable. Keep dih short and put the stress on ZINE.
Design 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.
She studied graphic design in college.
We need to design a better system.
The design of the new phone is very simple.
Why is there a silent g in design?
Design comes from Latin designare, to mark out, built on signum, a mark. The G is part of that root, and English keeps it in the spelling of the whole family.
Whether you hear the G depends on what follows it. At the end of the word, -ign is said like the word sign: dih-ZINE. When a suffix splits the G from the N, the G is said: designate is DEZ-ig-nayt, and signal and signature have a G too.
So design, sign and resign all end in a silent G, and the S in design is voiced, like the Z in zoo.
Words that sound like design
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
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