Is “umbrella” three or four syllables?
“umbrella” has 3 or 4 syllables, depending on how you say it. Most dictionaries count 3. um-BREL-uh (3) vs um-buh-REL-uh (4).
Every pronunciation, counted
| Say it like | IPA | Syllables | Count | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| uhm-BREL-uh | /əm.ˈbɹɛl.ə/ | ah m · b r eh l · ah | 3 | CMU dictionary |
| UM-brel-uh | /ˈʌm.ˌbɹɛl.ə/ | ah m · b r eh l · ah | 3 | CMU dictionary |
| uhm-buh-REL-uh | /əm.bə.ˈɹɛl.ə/ | ah m · b ah · r eh l · ah | 4 | added |
Syllables are shown in ARPAbet (the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary's phoneme alphabet). Respellings put the stressed syllable in capitals.
Why the count varies
Inserted vowel. Speakers insert a vowel into a consonant cluster (ath-uh-lete, um-buh-rella, fil-um, mis-chee-vee-us), adding a syllable that dictionaries do not list as standard.
Dictionaries give only three syllables for “umbrella”. The other count is something people hear in speech rather than a standard pronunciation.
What the dictionaries say
- Cambridge (UK) /ʌmˈbrel.ə/
- Cambridge (US) /ʌmˈbrel.ə/, /ʌmˈbrel·ə/
- Wiktionary /ʌmˈbɹɛl.ə/ (RP,GA), /ˈʌm.bɹɛl.ə/ (Southern US)
For haiku, sonnets and song lyrics
For haiku, sonnets and other syllable-counted verse, 'umbrella' is safest as 3 syllables, the count most dictionaries give. Poets have also used it as 4 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.