How to pronounce “turmeric”

TUR-muh-rik

3 syllables · stress on “TUR”

TURmuhrik

Britishˈtɜːmərɪk

Americanˈtɜːrmərɪk

In short

“turmeric” is pronounced TUR-muh-rik: 3 syllables, with the stress on “TUR”. Two r sounds in three syllables, and the first one is routinely deleted, exactly as in library. The spelling is also often misremembered as “tumeric”. The version to avoid is TOO-muh-rik — dropping the first r entirely.

Say “turmeric” in 3 steps

1Three syllables: TUR-muh-rik.
2Keep the first r — check the spelling: t-u-r-m.
3Stress the first syllable.

The version to avoid

Commonly said as: TOO-muh-rik — dropping the first r entirely

Two r sounds in three syllables, and the first one is routinely deleted, exactly as in library. The spelling is also often misremembered as “tumeric”.

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

1 human recording

Actual people saying “turmeric”, not a synthetic voice. Real speech varies — that variation is what you need to recognise, and what a single model voice cannot show you.

Recordings from Wikimedia Commons by Paul2520, licensed under CC0. Full credits.

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.

tt as in tea ɜːer as in bird mm as in man əa as in about (schwa)rr as in red ɪi as in sit kk as in key

More food and drink words

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

croissantKWAS-on quinoaKEEN-wah gnocchiNYOK-ee bruschettabroo-SKET-uh espressoe-SPRES-oh jalapeñohal-uh-PAY-nyoh

Frequently asked questions

How do you pronounce turmeric?

turmeric is pronounced TUR-muh-rik, written /ˈtɜːmərɪk/ in IPA. Three syllables: TUR-muh-rik.

How many syllables are in turmeric?

three: TUR-muh-rik. The stress falls on “TUR”.

What is the most common mistake with turmeric?

TOO-muh-rik — dropping the first r entirely. Two r sounds in three syllables, and the first one is routinely deleted, exactly as in library. The spelling is also often misremembered as “tumeric”.

The full sound library

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