2 syllables: Ad, journ. Stress on journ.
uh-JURN
/əˈdʒɝn/
Adjourn is pronounced uh-JURN (/əˈdʒɝn/). It has two syllables (Ad-journ), with the stress on "journ". Adjourn is a verb meaning to suspend a meeting or session to a later time or place. It implies a formal pause, often with the intention to resume later, or to end a proceeding temporarily. In legal or formal contexts, it denotes a deliberate interruption rather than an informal break.
verbAdjourn is a verb meaning to suspend a meeting or session to a later time or place. It implies a formal pause, often with the intention to resume later, or to end a proceeding temporarily. In legal or formal contexts, it denotes a deliberate interruption rather than an informal break.
How to Pronounce Adjourn
"The board voted to adjourn the meeting until 3 p.m."
"Court proceedings were adjourned for lunch and resumed afterward."
"The jury was adjourned to deliberate in private."
Pronunciation is uh-JURN, with primary stress on the second syllable. IPA: US /əˈdʒɜːrn/, UK /əˈdʒɜːn/, AU /əˈdʒɜːn/. Start with a schwa /ə/, then the affricate /d͡ʒ/ as in 'judge', followed by /ɜː/ (like 'fur' without r-color) and finish with /rn/. Mouth position: relaxed lips, tongue center high to mid, slight retroflex for the /ɜː/ vowel, quick lift into the rhotic /r/ plus a light nasal release for the -rn. Audio reference: you can compare with Cambridge/YouGlish pronunciations.
Two common errors: (1) stressing the first syllable as aDJOURn instead of aDJOURn; keep primary stress on the second syllable. (2) mispronouncing the /d͡ʒ/ as a simple /j/ or /d/ leading to a soft 'aj-urn' instead of 'uh-JURN'. Tip: practice by saying ‘uh-JURN’ slowly, then add the /d͡ʒ/ by starting with 'jar' and adding a gentle /d͡ʒ/ blend. Use minimal pairs to fix the /ɜː/ quality and r-coloring in US speech.
US tends toward rhotic /r/ with a slightly fuller /ɜːr/ in the final syllable. UK often has a non-rhotic closer to /əˈdʒɜːn/ with a shorter final rless vowel. Australian practice aligns with UK but with a brighter, more clipped ending; the vowel height is slightly raised, giving /əˈd͡ʒɜːn/. All share primary stress on the second syllable; the main variation is rhoticity and vowel quality of /ɜː/ before the final nasal.
The challenge lies in the /d͡ʒ/ blend immediately before a mid-central /ɜː/ vowel and the fast, subtle rhotic 'r' in American speech. The sequence /d͡ʒɜːr/ can blur in rapid speech, causing it to sound like /d͡ʒən/ or /d͡ʒɜːn/. Practicing the two-phoneme chunk /d͡ʒɜːr/ as a single unit helps, as does exaggerating the second syllable in slow practice, then reducing to natural speed while keeping the vowel quality stable.
The second syllable houses the core perceptual cue: /ˈd͡ʒɜːr/ in US, with a strong /r/ in rhotic accents. It’s not pronounced as a separate 'judge' + 'urn' but as a fused syllable where /d͡ʒ/ and /ɜː/ share a rapid glide into /r/. Visualize it as ‘uh- JERn,’ where the 'jer' chunk is compact and the final n is lightly enunciated. For precise listening, compare with forvo entries and legal transcripts where the exact vowel length is evident.
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Adjourn comes from the Old French adjourner, from a- (toward) + jarner (to set/join) with the English suffix -n. The root jarner is linked to judicial or formal assemblies, and the sense evolved from 'to bring to a conclusion by moving to another time/place' in medieval English usage. By Middle English, adjourn began appearing in law and parliament contexts, signaling a formal break or reset of proceedings. The word traveled through legal Latinized forms and settled into common English with its current practical duties: to suspend proceedings temporarily, with an implied return. The evolution reflects a governance-oriented usage where sessions require orderly interruption rather than casual ending. First known uses date back to the 14th- to 15th-century legal and administrative records, with the sense shifting slightly from “to draw toward” or “to turn away” to the modern sense of “to delay or conclude a meeting to a later time.”
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Adjourn" and can often be used interchangeably.
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Words that rhyme with "Adjourn"
-ure sounds
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