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How to pronounce silhouette

Silhouette is pronounced sil-uh-WET in American English and sil-oo-ET in British English. It has three syllables, and the main stress is on the last. The h is silent.

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

silhouette

Three syllables, stress on the third

noun · the dark shape of a person or thing against a light background

  1. silsɪl
  2. uhə
  3. WETwet (stressed)
  • US /ˌsɪl.əˈwet/sil-uh-WET Recorded voice
  • UK /ˌsɪl.uˈet/sil-oo-ET Your device’s voice

Also said: US /ˌsɪl.uˈet/.

IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford and Cambridge UK give /ˌsɪl.uˈet/. Cambridge US adds a w: /ˌsɪl.əˈwet/. The recording is American English.

Silhouette, sound by sound

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

US American English/ˌsɪl.əˈwet/

  1. sil

    • /s/as in see
    • /ɪ/as in sit
    • /l/as in leg

  2. uh

    • /ə/as in about

  3. WETstressed

    • /w/as in wet
    • /e/as in bed
    • /t/as in tea

UK British English/ˌsɪl.uˈet/

  1. sil

    • /s/as in see
    • /ɪ/as in sit
    • /l/as in leg

  2. oo

    • /u/as in situation

  3. ETstressed

    • /e/as in bed
    • /t/as in tea

Say silhouette yourself

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

Tip. Stress the last syllable: sil-oo-ET. The ette ends like the word et, not like a name.

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

Say it

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silhouette

    Common silhouette pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say sil-uh-WET.

    • NotSIL-oo-et

      Stressing the first syllable. The main stress is on the last: ET.

    • Notsil-hoo-ET

      Saying the h. It is silent.

    • Notsil-oo-ET-ee

      Adding a syllable after the t. The word ends on ET.

    Silhouette 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 saw her silhouette in the window.

    • The silhouette of the mountain was dark against the sky.

    • He drew a silhouette of the cat.

    How do you say silhouette?

    Silhouette has three syllables, with the main stress on the last: sil-oo-ET. The h in the middle is silent, and the ou sounds like oo.

    The word is the name of a person. It comes from Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister in the 1700s. Nobody is sure why his name was used for dark cut-out pictures. It may have been a joke about cheap or plain things.

    American speakers often add a w sound before the e: sil-uh-WET. British speakers say sil-oo-ET. Both are in Cambridge. The final ette is just ET, as in bet.

    Words that sound like silhouette

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

    More words from other languages

    All 170 difficult words

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