Slova
Sphygmomanometer is pronounced sfig-moh-muh-NAH-muh-ter in American English. It has six syllables with the stress on the fourth. British English stresses the same place: sfig-moh-man-OM-ih-tuh. The word begins with sf, and both the g and the m are said.
sphygmomanometer
noun · a device that measures blood pressure
Also said: UK /ˌsfɪɡ.məʊ.məˈnɒm.ɪ.tə/.
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Oxford has no entry. Dictionary.com gives sfig-moh-muh-NOM-ih-tuh for British English. The recording is American English.
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/ˌsfɪɡ.moʊ.məˈnɑː.mə.t̬ɚ/
sfig
moh
muh
NAHstressed
muh
ter
UK British English/ˌsfɪɡ.məʊ.mænˈɒm.ɪ.tə/
sfig
moh
man
OMstressed
ih
tuh
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes sphygmomanometer, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Stress the fourth syllable: NAH in American English, OM in British English. Keep the rest light.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
Say this word
sphygmomanometer
Compare
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say sfig-moh-muh-NAH-muh-ter.
Notsfig-moh-MAN-oh-mee-ter
Stressing man and saying meter like the word meter. Stress the syllable before -meter, as in thermometer.
Notes-fig-moh-muh-NAH-muh-ter
Adding a vowel before sf. Start straight on the s: sfig.
Notspig-moh-muh-NAH-muh-ter
Saying ph as p. In sph, the ph is an f sound, as in sphere.
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
The nurse checked my blood pressure with a sphygmomanometer.
A sphygmomanometer has a cuff that goes around your arm.
It is two parts joined together: sphygmo-, from the Greek word for pulse, and manometer, an instrument that measures pressure. Say the parts separately first: SFIG-moh, then muh-NAH-muh-ter.
The stress follows the -meter rule. In words ending in -ometer, the stress falls just before -meter: thermometer, speedometer, barometer. So the strong syllable is NAH, or OM in British English.
The spelling looks harder than the sounds. Sph is sf, as in sphere. The y is a short i, as in gym. And unlike paradigm, where the g is silent, the g before m is said: sfig-moh.
Practise from the end: NAH-muh-ter, then muh-NAH-muh-ter, then the whole word.
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.