HOW TO PRONOUNCE
pragmatic
/pɹæɡˈmætɪk/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:47
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Put the main beat on “mat.”
Use three syllables and a short a vowel in the stressed middle one. Keep the g before m audible without separating those consonants with an extra vowel.
3 syllables · Stress on syllable 2
TRY SAYING
“They chose a pragmatic solution.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗What does pragmatic mean?
adjective
- Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory.
- Philosophical; dealing with causes, reasons, and effects, rather than with details and circumstances; said of literature.
- Relating to the field of pragmatics.
More meanings (4)
noun
- A man of business.
- A busybody.
- A public decree.
adjective
- (obsolete) Interfering in the affairs of others; officious; meddlesome.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/pɹæɡˈmætɪk/
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.
The theory of the method of knowing which is advanced in these pages may be termed pragmatic.
This independency of the clergy of France upon the court of Rome seems to be principally founded upon the pragmatic sanction and the concordat.
More book examples (2)
In recent years the economic or pragmatic epistemology, as developed by Avenarius and Mach in Germany, and by James in America, points in the same direction.
We may, therefore, get some sort of pragmatic insight into the wisdom or unwisdom, of an action in the assertion: “To be wise is to be able to sacrifice an immediate petty advantage to a later and greater advantage.”