m/m/
Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.
How to pronounce meteorologists in American English
mee·tee·uh·RAH·luh·juhsts
Start here
Americans pronounce meteorologists as mee-tee-uh-RAH-luh-juhsts (/ˌmiɾiəˈrɑlədʒəsts/). In "meteorologists", the "t" is squeezed between other consonants and drops out — the surrounding consonants flow together without it — most natural in flowing, casual speech; in careful or formal speech, the T may be lightly present. This is called the Silent T in Clusters, a small move that separates 'classroom' from 'native'. It comes out as MEE·tee·uh·RAH·luh·juhsts. Stress falls on the fourth syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "Meteorologists predict the weather using satellite data and models".
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "meteorologists".
6 syllables, 14 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
t/t/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Don't stop the airflow — just a quick tap.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
r/r/
SyllabicThe schwa before R disappears — R becomes the vowel of the syllable. This is the 'er' sound without a distinct vowel before it.
ah/ɑ/
Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
j/dʒ/
Touch the front of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, then release into a 'zh' position. Add vocal cord vibration.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
t/t/
DroppedThe T is skipped entirely. Your tongue doesn't make contact at the T position.
s/s/
Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.
In real conversation
Hear "meteorologists" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
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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
Pronouncing the T in a consonant cluster.
In "meteorologists", the "t" is squeezed between other consonants and drops out — the surrounding consonants flow together without it — most natural in flowing, casual speech; in careful or formal speech, the T may be lightly present. /t/ is dropped entirely — the surrounding consonants flow together without the T.
meteorologists→MEE·tee·uh·RAH·luh·juhsts
02
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "meteorologists", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
mee-tee-uh-RAH-luh-juhsts→MEE·tee·uh·RAH·luh·juhsts
03
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the fourth syllable, not the others. Stretch RAH — keep everything else short and quick.
MEE·TEE·UH·rah·LUH·JUHSTS→MEE·tee·uh·RAH·luh·juhsts
04
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
mee·tee·UH·RAH·luh·juhsts→MEE·tee·uh·RAH·luh·juhsts
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "meteorologists" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the fourth syllable — say "RAH" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "mee-tee-uh-RAH-luh-juhsts" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "meteorologists"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "meteorologists" sounds closer to "mee-tee-uh-RAH-luh-juhsts" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Why does the third syllable in "meteorologists" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "mee-tee-uh-RAH-luh-juhsts" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "meteorologists" 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 "mee-tee-uh-RAH-luh-juhsts" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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