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How to pronounce muscle

Muscle is pronounced MUS-l, with two syllables and the stress on the first. The c is silent, so it sounds exactly like mussel, the shellfish. American and British English agree.

Say it yourself
  • 2 syllables
  • Stress on MUS
  • Sounds like mussel
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

muscle

Two syllables, stress on the first

noun · a part of the body that you use to move; it gets stronger with exercise

  1. MUSmʌs (stressed)
  2. ləl
  • US /ˈmʌs.əl/MUS-l Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈmʌs.əl/MUS-l Your device’s voice

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

Muscle, sound by sound

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

USUK American and British English/ˈmʌs.əl/

  1. MUSstressed

    • /m/as in man
    • /ʌ/as in cup
    • /s/as in see

  2. l

    • /ə/as in about
    • /l/as in leg

Say muscle yourself

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

Tip. The c is silent. Say MUS-l, exactly like mussel the shellfish.

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

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muscle

    Common muscle pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say MUS-l.

    • NotMUS-kl

      Saying the c as k. In the word muscle it is silent.

    • NotMYOO-sl

      Reading u as in music. It is the short u of cup.

    • Notmus-KUL

      Stressing the end and saying the k. The stress is on MUS, with no k.

    Muscle 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 pulled a muscle in my leg yesterday.

    • Exercise makes every muscle stronger.

    • He has a big muscle in his arm.

    Is the c in muscle silent?

    Yes. The c is silent in muscle, so it is a homophone of mussel, the shellfish. The sound is MUS-l: a short u, an s, and a light l.

    Latin gives a nice reason for the spelling. The word comes from Latin musculus, which means little mouse, because a moving muscle under the skin can look like a mouse. The c belonged to that Latin form.

    The c comes back when you add endings that start with a vowel, such as muscular, which is said MUS-kyuh-ler. In the short word, say the s and go straight to the light l.

    Words that sound like muscle

    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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