HOW TO PRONOUNCE
silhouette
/ˌsɪləˈwɛt/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:13
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Give the last syllable the main beat.
There is a smaller beat at the beginning. The written h has no separate h sound here; a w leads into the stressed vowel near the end.
3 syllables · Stress on syllable 3
TRY SAYING
“We could see his silhouette in the doorway.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗What does silhouette mean?
noun
- An artistic depiction, often of a person's profile, in the form of an outline without any other visual details, similar to a shadow, made by cutting a piece of black paper, filling in an outline with a solid colour (usually black), etc.
- A dark outline of someone or something seen against a brighter background.
- An outline of a garment as it appears on a wearer.
More meanings (3)
noun
- (figuratively) A brief written description of someone or something; an outline, a sketch.
verb
- Often followed by against or upon: to depict (oneself or someone, or something) as a silhouette (noun sense 1 or noun sense 2.1); to project (oneself or someone, or something) upon a background, so as to be like a silhouette.
- To appear as a silhouette.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˌsɪləˈwɛt/
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.
Filling the vision to the south-west was Aurora Peak, in crisp silhouette against a glorious radiant of cirrus cloud.
The tree-tops rose against the luminous blue sky in inky silhouette, and all below that outline melted into one formless blackness.
More book examples (3)
The passage was comparatively long and dark, so each man could see the other as a mere black silhouette at the other end.
Along the ridge of the great pit-hill crawled a little group in silhouette against the sky, a horse, a small truck, and a man.
Then he relapsed into silence, and the two sat watching the colossal figure as it made its way downward along the jagged silhouette of the rocks.