HOW TO PRONOUNCE
tomb
/tum/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:41
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The final “b” is silent.
Use one syllable with the long oo vowel heard in moon. Close the lips for m at the end, without releasing a separate b sound.
1 syllable
TRY SAYING
“The guide pointed to an ancient tomb.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗What does tomb mean?
noun
- A small building, or a room within one, for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door. It may be partly or wholly in the ground (except for its entrance) in a cemetery, or it may be inside a church proper or in its crypt. Single tombs may be permanently sealed; those for families (or other groups) have doors for access whenever needed.
- A pit in which the dead body of a human being is deposited.
- One who keeps secrets.
More meanings (3)
noun
- Death (literary)
verb
- To bury.
proper noun
- A surname transferred from the given name.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/tum/
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.
She knelt beside the coffin, covered her face with her hands, and for a time the room was silent as a tomb.
The yells of men possessed, sometimes, made them pause, and wonder that they felt so happy, in a tomb of living death.
More book examples (3)
Without invalidating anything that we have just said, we believe that a perpetual memory of the tomb is proper for the living.
It was the weirdest moment of the night wherein we heard that newly buried man speak from the mold of his tomb.
But good Aeneas order’d on the shore A stately tomb, whose top a trumpet bore, A soldier’s falchion, and a seaman’s oar.