Enunciation or pronunciation?
enunciation is a noun meaning “The act of enunciating, announcing, proclaiming, or making known; open…”; pronunciation is a noun meaning “The way in which a word, phrase, letter, character etc. is made to sound when…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) pronunciation is about 25 times as common as enunciation.
What is the difference between enunciation and pronunciation?
| enunciation | pronunciation | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | The act of enunciating, announcing, proclaiming, or making known; open attestation; declaration The mode of utterance or pronunciation, especially with regards to the fullness and distinctness of articulation | The way in which a word, phrase, letter, character etc. is made to sound when spoken The characteristic sounds of a particular language, accent, or individual's speech |
| Example | It was time for the enunciation of an important truth | What is the pronunciation of "hiccough"? |
| Forms | enunciations | pronunciations |
| Pronunciation | /ɪˌnʌn.sɪˈeɪ.ʃən/ /ɪˌnʌn.ʃɪˈeɪ.ʃən/ /ɪˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ [pʰɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃn̩] /pɹəˌnaʊn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ |
| In writing | about once in every 8 million words | 3.2 times per million words |
Sources: enunciation and pronunciation in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of enunciation and pronunciation
enunciation
- 1
The act of enunciating, announcing, proclaiming, or making known; open attestation; declaration
It was time for the enunciation of an important truth
- 2
The mode of utterance or pronunciation, especially with regards to the fullness and distinctness of articulation
She speaks with an impressively clear enunciation
- 3
That which is enunciated or announced; words in which a proposition is expressed; formal declaration
pronunciation
- 1
The way in which a word, phrase, letter, character etc. is made to sound when spoken
What is the pronunciation of "hiccough"?
- 2
The characteristic sounds of a particular language, accent, or individual's speech
His Italian pronunciation is terrible
- 3
The act of making a pronouncement or uttering a vocable
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, enunciation or pronunciation?
enunciation appears about once in every 8 million words; pronunciation 3.2 times per million words.
enunciation about once in every 8 million wordspronunciation 3.2 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search enunciation vs pronunciation?
“enunciation vs pronunciation” is searched about 3,600 times a month on Google and 150 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“pronunciation vs enunciation”, “enunciation or pronunciation”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.