s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
How to pronounce censorship in American English
SEHN·ser·shihp
Start here
Americans pronounce censorship as SEHN-ser-shihp (/ˈsɛnsərʃɪp/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Censorship of the press is considered a violation of free speech".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "censorship".
3 syllables, 8 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
eh/ɛ/
Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.
n/n/
Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth behind your teeth. Air flows through your nose.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
er/ər/
Relax your mouth and lift the tongue back and up. Keep the lips neutral.
sh/ʃ/
Flare your lips and lift the mid-front tongue close to the roof of your mouth. Blow air through without voicing.
ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
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Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch SEHN — keep everything else short and quick.
sehn·SER·SHIHP→SEHN·ser·shihp
02
Pronouncing the "R" too clearly.
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R — the tongue curls back rather than rolling. The R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it, not two separate sounds.
… (no R)→… r (curl the tongue)
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "censorship" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "SEHN" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "SEHN-ser-shihp" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
How do I pronounce the R in "censorship"?
Americans use a relaxed retroflex R: the tongue curls back rather than rolling, and the R is one continuous sound with the vowel before it — not two separate sounds. Don't try to pronounce a separate vowel followed by a separate R. Treat them as a single shape.
Is the American pronunciation of "censorship" different from British English?
American English uses different vowel shapes, a relaxed retroflex R, and connected-speech tricks like flap-T and glottal-stop T that British Received Pronunciation generally avoids. The respell "SEHN-ser-shihp" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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