Pronunciation · Academic and IELTS words

How to pronounce “bureaucracy”

byoo-ROK-ruh-see

4 syllables · stress on “ROK”

byooROKruhsee

Britishbjʊəˈrɒkrəsi

Americanbjʊˈrɑːkrəsi

In short

“bureaucracy” is pronounced byoo-ROK-ruh-see: 4 syllables, with the stress on “ROK”. The related word bureau stresses its own first syllable, so learners carry that stress across. Bureaucracy moves it to the second syllable and reduces everything else. The version to avoid is BYOO-ro-cra-see — stressing the first syllable, or reading “bureau” as a separate word.

Say “bureaucracy” in 3 steps

1Stress syllable two: byoo-ROK-ruh-see.
2Start with a /bj/ glide: “byoo”, not “boo”.
3The -cracy ending is the same as in democracy: -kruh-see.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: BYOO-ro-cra-see — stressing the first syllable, or reading “bureau” as a separate word

The related word bureau stresses its own first syllable, so learners carry that stress across. Bureaucracy moves it to the second syllable and reduces everything else.

Hear real people say it

Model audio is consistent; real speech is not. Hearing several actual speakers is what makes a word recognisable when someone says it at full speed.

Real speakers

No free human recording of “bureaucracy” exists yet in the public archives we draw on, so the audio above is our model voice. It is accurate for this word — a human clip would simply add natural variation on top.

Practise it out loud

Reading about a sound does not change your mouth. Say it, hear it back, and fix one thing at a time.

Say it yourself

0/6 practised

Listen first, then record. You get feedback on the individual sounds, the stress and the rhythm — no account needed, and nothing is stored.

Three speakers per accent

Recordings are used only to generate this feedback and are not stored. Your accent is never penalised: IELTS scores intelligibility, and so do we.

The sounds inside this word

Each links to a full guide with mouth position, audio and drills. If a word keeps failing, the problem is usually one of these.

bb as in bed jy as in yes uːoo as in blue rr as in red ɒo as in hot kk as in key əa as in about (schwa)ss as in see iːee as in see

More academic and ielts words

Same pattern, same fix. Learning them as a group is far faster than one at a time.

entrepreneuron-truh-pruh-NUR questionnairekwes-chuh-NAIR environmentin-VY-run-munt phenomenonfuh-NOM-ih-nun hierarchyHY-uh-rar-kee genreZHON-ruh

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce bureaucracy?

bureaucracy is pronounced byoo-ROK-ruh-see, written /bjʊəˈrɒkrəsi/ in IPA. Stress syllable two: byoo-ROK-ruh-see.

How many syllables are in bureaucracy?

four: byoo-ROK-ruh-see. The stress falls on “ROK”.

What is the most common mistake with bureaucracy?

BYOO-ro-cra-see — stressing the first syllable, or reading “bureau” as a separate word. The related word bureau stresses its own first syllable, so learners carry that stress across. Bureaucracy moves it to the second syllable and reduces everything else.

The full sound library

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