Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

long a

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.80 in modern English

Syllables
long a
IPA
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The vowel sound in the words game and cake; /eɪ/. (The presence of a long vowel is often signaled in spelling by a silent e that follows it, as in the examples here, or by the fact that a subsequent consonant is single rather than doubled, as for example in gaming versus gamming).

noun

The vowel sound in the English words bath and castle when pronounced with an open back unrounded vowel (/ɑː/); associated with southern England accents.

British usage

Usage

Inflected Forms

long a's (plural)

Frequently Paired Words

long e short e long i short i long o short o long u short u

Synonyms

broad a

Antonyms

short a flat a

Questions

What does long a mean?
The vowel sound in the words game and cake; /eɪ/. (The presence of a long vowel is often signaled in spelling by a silent e that follows it, as in the examples here, or by the fact that a subsequent consonant is single rather than doubled, as for example in gaming versus gamming).

How to pronounce long a

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “long a”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “long a”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “long a” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.