Is “senior” two or three syllables?
“senior” has 2 or 3 syllables, depending on how you say it. Most dictionaries count 2. SEEN-yur (2) vs SEE-nee-ur (3).
Every pronunciation, counted
| Say it like | IPA | Syllables | Count | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEE-nyer | /ˈsi.njɚ/ | s iy · n y er | 2 | CMU dictionary |
| SEE-nee-er | /ˈsi.ni.ɚ/ | s iy · n iy · er | 3 | Cambridge (UK) |
Syllables are shown in ARPAbet (the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary's phoneme alphabet). Respellings put the stressed syllable in capitals.
Why the count varies
Y/w glide formation. An unstressed i or u before another vowel (mill-i-on, It-al-i-an, on-i-on) is usually pronounced as a y glide, MIL-yun, which removes a syllable; careful speech keeps it.
What the dictionaries say
- Cambridge (UK) /ˈsiː.ni.ə(r)/
- Cambridge (US) /ˈsiː.njɚ/, /ˈsin·jər/
- Wiktionary /ˈsiːnjə(ɹ)/ (RP), /ˈsinjɚ/ (GA,CA), /ˈsiːnjə(ɹ)/ (AU,NZ)
For haiku, sonnets and song lyrics
For haiku, sonnets and other syllable-counted verse, 'senior' is safest as 2 syllables, the count most dictionaries give. Poets have also used it as 3 syllables; either scans if the line is read naturally, but say which you mean if the count matters (haiku judges usually accept the dictionary count).
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Pronunciations from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, checked against Cambridge Dictionary and Wiktionary transcriptions. Hyphenation from the hyph_en_US patterns.