Guide to Pronunciation. Pronunciation is not an intrinsic component of the dic- tionary. For some languages, such as Spanish, Swahili, and Finnish, the correspondence between orthography and pronunciation is so close that a dictionary need only spell a word correctly to indicate its pronunciation. Modern English, however, displays no such ...

The first pronunciation given usually represents the one most commonly used, but where a strong form is indicated it should be used when the word is stressed. A strong form is also usually used when the word is at the end of a sentence. For example: Can /kən/ you help?

The symbol (r) indicates that British pronunciation will have /r/ only if a vowel sound follows directly at the beginning of the next word, as in far away; otherwise the /r/ is omitted. For American English, all the /r/ sounds should be pronounced. /x/ represents a fricative sound as in /lɒx/ for Scottish loch, Irish lough.

Some pronunciations are labelled as strong or weak forms. The first pronunciation given usually represents the one most commonly used, but where a strong form is indicated it should be used when the word is stressed. A strong form is also usually used when the word is at the end of a sentence.