English pronunciation · Words Starting with B
Bacchanal Pronunciation
Bacchanal is pronounced BA-ki-nuhl, IPA /ˈbækɪnəl/.
BA-ki-nuhl
US /ˈbækɪnəl/ · UK /ˈbækənəl/
Syllables: BA · ki · nuhl (3 syllables, stress on syllable 1)
noun: A wild party involving a lot of drinking, named after the Roman god Bacchus.
Audio for the American and British pronunciations plays on this page with JavaScript enabled.
Two Ways to Say Bacchanal
The pronunciation changes with the meaning or the part of speech. The form above is the most common; the others are:
- the buh-KAY-nuhl reading, with the beat in the middle: /bəˈkeɪnəl/ (buh-KAY-nuhl)
Bacchanal in a Sentence
- The evening turned into a full bacchanal by midnight.
- He painted a bacchanal with vines and overturned cups.
- What began as a dinner ended as a bacchanal.
Common Mispronunciations of Bacchanal
Not ba-chuh-NAL
Read the cch as a hard k, since the word comes through Latin from the name Bacchus.
Not ba-kuh-NAL
Hold the beat somewhere near the front. Dictionaries record both a front-stressed and a middle-stressed reading, but neither leans on the end.
More words starting with b · Every word in the pronunciation guide