Wednesday
noun · the day of the week after Tuesday and before Thursday
- WENZwenz (stressed)
- daydeɪ
- WENZwenz (stressed)
- daydeɪ
- US /ˈwenz.deɪ/WENZ-day Recorded voice
- UK /ˈwenz.deɪ/WENZ-day Your device’s voice
Also said: US /ˈwenz.di/.
How to pronounce Wednesday
Wednesday is pronounced WENZ-day, with two syllables and the stress on the first. The first d and the middle e are silent. WENZ-dee is also correct, and Cambridge lists it for American English.
- 2 syllables
- Stress on WENZ
- US and UK IPA
- Checked in Cambridge and Oxford
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. Cambridge also lists WENZ-dee for American English. The recording is American English.
Wednesday, sound by sound
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
USUK American and British English/ˈwenz.deɪ/
WENZstressed
- /w/as in wet
- /e/as in bed
- /n/as in now
- /z/as in zoo
day
- /d/as in did
- /eɪ/as in day
Say Wednesday yourself
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes Wednesday, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Two syllables, not three. Skip the first D: WENZ-day.
Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.
Say it
Say this word
Wednesday
Compare
Ours
Yours
Your recording stays in this tab. It is gone when you leave the page.
Common Wednesday pronunciation mistakes
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say WENZ-day.
Not
WED-nes-dayThree syllables from the spelling. Say two, and drop the D.
Not
WEDNZ-dayKeeping the D. Go straight from WEN to Z.
Not
wenz-DAYStressing day. The stress is on WENZ.
Wednesday 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.
The meeting has moved to Wednesday.
We have swimming every Wednesday after school.
I'll send it to you by Wednesday morning.
Why is Wednesday spelled that way?
Wednesday is Woden's day. In Old English it was Wōdnesdæg, named after Woden, the god the Norse called Odin. The name copied the Latin day of Mercury, which is why French has mercredi.
The spelling still shows Woden's name, but speech wore it down. The d before n and the e after it stopped being said, so three written syllables became two spoken ones: WENZ-day.
Many people remember the spelling by saying Wed-nes-day in their head. When you speak, say WENZ-day.
Words that sound like Wednesday
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
Say words like Wednesday out loud with Slova
In Slova you say new words out loud in every lesson, at your level, in lessons built around what you love.