English pronunciation · Words Starting with A
Archetypal Pronunciation
Archetypal is pronounced AHRK-TY-puhl, IPA /ˈɑrkˈtaɪpəl/.
AHRK-TY-puhl
US /ˈɑrkˈtaɪpəl/ · UK /ˌɑːkɪˈtaɪpəl/
Syllables: AHRK · TY · puhl (3 syllables, stress on syllable 1)
adjective: Being the most typical or original example of a kind.
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Archetypal in a Sentence
- He is the archetypal village doctor.
- The novel follows an archetypal journey out and back.
- Her kitchen is archetypal 1970s Britain.
Common Mispronunciations of Archetypal
Not ahr-kuh-TY-puhl
American dictionaries compress the word to three beats and give AHRK a beat of its own alongside TY. The four-beat British reading, ahr-ki-TY-puhl, is equally correct.
Not AHR-chuh-ty-puhl
Keep the ch hard here, as archive and archaic do. A church ch would need the word to have come through French rather than straight from Greek.
Tip: The noun archetype keeps its weight at the front, AHR-ki-typ, and only the adjective pushes a beat onto the TY.
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