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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

archetype

/ˈɑɹkɪˌtaɪp/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:39
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The ch sounds like k.

The first syllable carries the main stress. The last syllable has the eye vowel and a smaller beat; keep its final p without adding another vowel.

3 syllables · Stress on syllable 1

TRY SAYING
The character is an archetype of the wandering hero.

APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

What does archetype mean?

noun

  1. An original model of which all other similar concepts, objects, or persons are merely copied, derivative, emulated, or patterned.
  2. An ideal example of something; a quintessence.
  3. A character, object, or story that is based on a known character, object, or story.
More meanings (3)

noun

  1. According to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung: a universal pattern of thought, present in an individual's unconscious, inherited from the past collective experience of humanity.
  2. A protograph (“original manuscript of a text from which all further copies derive”).

verb

  1. To depict as, model using, or otherwise associate an object or subject with an archetype.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˈɑɹkɪˌtaɪp/

Pronunciation used in the listening tip.

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary

Other dictionary pronunciations

/ˈɑɹkɪtaɪp/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

ARCHETYPAL.—Of or belonging to the Archetype, or ideal primitive form upon which all the beings of a group seem to be organised.
Charles DarwinThe Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th EditionProject Gutenberg ebook #2009
He takes care that his idea be conformable to this archetype, and intends the name should stand for an idea so conformable.
John LockeAn Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 2 MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 3 and 4Project Gutenberg ebook #10616
More book examples (3)
For to imagine that the archetype was created would be blasphemy, seeing that the world is the noblest of creations, and God is the best of causes.
PlatoTimaeusTranslated by Benjamin JowettProject Gutenberg ebook #1572
There is nothing in the nature of a parallel, a type and its archetype, between that which is without him and that which is within, the impresser and the impression.
William GodwinThoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions and Discoveries Interspersed with Some Particulars Respecting the AuthorProject Gutenberg ebook #743
If we suppose that the ancient progenitor, the archetype as it may be called, of all mammals, had its limbs constructed on the existing general pattern, for whatever purpose they served, we can at once perceive the plain signification of the homologous construction of the limbs throughout the whole class.
Charles DarwinOn the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for LifeProject Gutenberg ebook #1228