Slova
Karaoke is pronounced ker-ee-OH-kee in American English and ka-ree-OH-kee in British English. It has four syllables, and the stress is on the third, OH. It does not sound like the Japanese word.
karaoke
noun · entertainment in which people sing the words to popular songs over recorded music
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/ˌker.iˈoʊ.ki/
ker
ee
OHstressed
kee
UK British English/ˌkær.iˈəʊ.ki/
ka
ree
OHstressed
kee
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes karaoke, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Four syllables, stressed on OH: ker-ee-OH-kee. It is not the Japanese kah-rah-OH-keh.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
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karaoke
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What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say ker-ee-OH-kee.
NotKAIR-ee-oh-kee
Stressing the first syllable. The stress is on the third: OH.
Notkuh-ROW-kee
Dropping a syllable. The word has four: ker-ee-OH-kee.
Notkuh-ROK-ee
Using a short o. The stressed vowel is the oh of go.
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
We sang at a karaoke bar on Friday.
My friends love karaoke night.
The hotel has a karaoke room.
English has its own form of karaoke. It is ker-ee-OH-kee in the US and ka-ree-OH-kee in Britain, with the stress on OH and a final kee. Japanese speakers say kah-rah-oh-keh, with an even rhythm, and that is not the English form.
The word is Japanese. Kara means empty, and oke is short for okesutora, the Japanese word for orchestra. So karaoke means empty orchestra: the music plays without the singer.
Say the first two syllables quickly and lightly, stress the third, and finish with kee. Many learners say kuh-RAW-kee, which drops a syllable.
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.