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How to pronounce tsunami

Tsunami is pronounced tsoo-NAH-mee, with three syllables and the stress on the second. It starts with ts, as at the end of cats. Many English speakers drop the t and say soo-NAH-mee.

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

tsunami

Three syllables, stress on the second

noun · a very large wave caused by an earthquake under the sea

  1. tsootsuː
  2. NAHnɑː (stressed)
  3. meemi
  • US /tsuːˈnɑː.mi/tsoo-NAH-mee Recorded voice
  • UK /tsuːˈnɑː.mi/tsoo-NAH-mee Your device’s voice

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

Tsunami, sound by sound

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

USUK American and British English/tsuːˈnɑː.mi/

  1. tsoo

    • /t/as in tea
    • /s/as in see
    • /uː/as in too

  2. NAHstressed

    • /n/as in now
    • /ɑː/as in father

  3. mee

    • /m/as in man
    • /i/as in happy

Say tsunami yourself

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

Tip. Start with ts, as in cats: tsoo-NAH-mee. Dropping the t, soo-NAH-mee, is also common.

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

Say it

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tsunami

    Common tsunami pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say tsoo-NAH-mee.

    • Notchuh-NAH-mee

      Turning ts into ch. The start is ts, as in cats.

    • NotTSOO-nah-mee

      Stressing the first syllable. The stress is on NAH.

    • Nottuh-SOO-nah-mee

      Adding a vowel between t and s. The ts is one sound.

    Tsunami 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.

    • A tsunami hit the coast after the earthquake.

    • The town was rebuilt after the tsunami.

    • People ran to high ground when the tsunami came.

    Do you say the t in tsunami?

    Cambridge and Oxford both list the t: tsoo-NAH-mee. It is a Japanese sound, ts, and it is not hard if you practise it by saying cats and then taking away the ca.

    English does not start words with ts, so many speakers drop the t and say soo-NAH-mee. Wiktionary shows both. The form with the t is the one in the dictionaries, but nobody will mishear the other.

    The word is Japanese. It is made of tsu, harbor, and nami, wave: a harbor wave. The stress is on the middle syllable, NAH. Say it with three even beats and a clear ah.

    Words that sound like tsunami

    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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