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How to pronounce gnome

Gnome is pronounced NOHM, rhyming with home. It is one syllable, and the G at the start is silent in both American and British English.

Say it yourself
  • 1 syllable
  • Stress on NOHM
  • Sounds like Nome
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

gnome

One syllable

noun · a small old man with a beard in children's stories; a small statue of one in a garden

  1. NOHMnoʊm (stressed)
  • US /noʊm/NOHM Recorded voice
  • UK /nəʊm/NOHM Your device’s voice

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

Gnome, sound by sound

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

US American English/noʊm/

  1. NOHMstressed

    • /n/as in now
    • /oʊ/as in go (US)
    • /m/as in man

UK British English/nəʊm/

  1. NOHMstressed

    • /n/as in now
    • /əʊ/as in go (UK)
    • /m/as in man

Say gnome yourself

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

Tip. Start with N. The G is silent: NOHM, rhyming with home.

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

Say it

Say this word

gnome

    Common gnome pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say NOHM.

    • Notguh-NOHM

      Saying the G with a small vowel after it. Start the word with N.

    • NotNYOHM

      Reading gn as in Spanish ñ or Italian gn. In English it is a plain N.

    • NotNOM

      Using the short o of hot. The vowel is the long oh in home.

    Gnome 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.

    • My grandmother keeps a small gnome in her garden.

    • In the story, a gnome guards the gold.

    • The garden gnome has a red hat.

    Why do you not say the g in gnome?

    English does not pronounce gn at the start of a word, so the G is dropped: gnome, gnaw, gnat. The same rule silences the K in knee and know.

    The word came into English from French gnome. The Swiss doctor Paracelsus used gnomus in Latin for small spirits living in the earth, and the word spread from there.

    The G is not always silent. When g and n fall in different syllables, you hear both, as in ignore and agnostic. At the start of gnome, begin with N and say NOHM.

    Words that sound like gnome

    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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