HOW TO PRONOUNCE
guillotine
/ˈɡɪləˌtin/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:49
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Start with a strong “gil.”
Use three syllables with initial primary stress and a secondary final teen. Another pronunciation changes the opening vowel and uses y instead of the first l sound.
3 syllables · Stress on syllable 1
TRY SAYING
“The exhibit includes a model guillotine.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗What does guillotine mean?
noun
- A device used for cutting the pages of books, stacks of paper, etc., to straight edges, usually by means of a hinged or sliding blade attached to a flat platform.
- An instrument with a sliding blade for cutting the tonsils, uvula, or other body parts.
- (informal) A parliamentary procedure for fixing the dates when various stages of discussion of a bill must end, to ensure that the enactment of the bill proceeds expeditiously.
More meanings (7)
noun
- (informal) A legislative motion that debate be ended and a vote taken; a cloture.
- (figuratively, historical) A machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation, consisting of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy diagonal-edged blade which is dropped onto the neck of the person to be executed; also, execution using this machine.
verb
- (figuratively) To execute (someone) with a guillotine.
- To cut or trim (a body part, a stack of paper, etc.) with a guillotine.
- (informal) To end discussion (about a parliamentary bill or part of one) by invoking a guillotine procedure.
- (informal) To end (a legislative debate) by invoking cloture.
- (figuratively) To end anything abruptly.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈɡɪləˌtin/
Pronunciation used in the listening tip.
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
To think of Armand dying a traitor’s death on the guillotine was too horrible even to dwell upon—impossible, in fact.
What this folk needed, then, was a Reign of Terror and a guillotine, and I was the wrong man for them.
More book examples (3)
The “sharp female newly-born, and called La Guillotine,” was hardly known to him, or to the generality of people, by name.
For, in the words of that member of the Convention who did not like the guillotine, to kill is not to reply.
The guillotine was not re-established as a permanency, but replaced by deportation under conditions which left the victims little chance of survival.