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How to pronounce library

Library is pronounced LY-brer-ee in American English and LY-bruh-ree in British English. It has three syllables with the stress on the first, and both r sounds are said.

Say it yourself
  • 3 syllables
  • Stress on LY
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

library

Three syllables, stress on the first

noun · a place where you can read or borrow books

  1. LYlaɪ (stressed)
  2. brerbrer
  3. eei
  • US /ˈlaɪ.brer.i/LY-brer-ee Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈlaɪ.brər.i/LY-bruh-ree Your device’s voice

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

Library, sound by sound

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

US American English/ˈlaɪ.brer.i/

  1. LYstressed

    • /l/as in leg
    • /aɪ/as in my

  2. brer

    • /b/as in bad
    • /r/as in red
    • /e/as in bed
    • /r/as in red

  3. ee

    • /i/as in happy

UK British English/ˈlaɪ.brər.i/

  1. LYstressed

    • /l/as in leg
    • /aɪ/as in my

  2. bruh

    • /b/as in bad
    • /r/as in red
    • /ə/as in about
    • /r/as in red

  3. ree

    • /i/as in happy

Say library yourself

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

Tip. Say both r sounds: LY-brer-ee. Not LY-berry. The stress is on the first syllable.

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

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library

    Common library pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say LY-brer-ee.

    • NotLY-berry

      Dropping the first r. The word needs both: br and ar.

    • NotLIB-rer-ee

      Using the short i of sit in the first syllable. It is the eye sound of my.

    • Notly-BRER-ee

      Stressing the second syllable. The stress is on LY.

    Library 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 borrowed this book from the library.

    • The library closes at six on Fridays.

    • She studies at the university library every day.

    Why do people say LY-berry?

    Library has two r sounds, br and ar, close together. It is easy to drop the first one, so many speakers say LY-berry. That form is common in casual speech, but the dictionaries list only the form with both r sounds.

    The word comes from Latin librarium, a place for books, from liber. Liber first meant the inner bark of a tree, which was used for writing. The same root gives us libretto and the Spanish word libro.

    Say it in three beats: LY, then brer, then ee. Put your lips in the r shape twice. It helps to say lib-rair-ee slowly, and then speed up.

    Words that sound like library

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

    More words with silent letters

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