3 syllables: Cal, en, dar. Stress on Cal.
KAL-uhn-dur
/ˈkæləndɚ/
Calendar is pronounced KAL-uhn-dur (/ˈkæləndɚ/). It has three syllables (Cal-en-dar), with the stress on "Cal". Calendar (noun) refers to a system for organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes, often in a structured year. It can denote a printed grid showing days and months or a schedule of upcoming events. In everyday use, it combines timekeeping with planning and coordination.
nounCalendar (noun) refers to a system for organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes, often in a structured year. It can denote a printed grid showing days and months or a schedule of upcoming events. In everyday use, it combines timekeeping with planning and coordination.
"I marked the meeting on my calendar for next Tuesday."
"The holidays are listed in the calendar under December."
"We convened a calendar invite to coordinate everyone's availability."
You say /ˈkæl.ən.dɚ/ in US English, with primary stress on the first syllable. In careful speech you may hear the middle syllable reduced to a schwa, giving /ˈkæl.ən.dər/. The final 'ar' often becomes a rhotic schwa /ɚ/ in American pronunciation; in many UK contexts you’ll hear /ˈkæl.ən.də/ with non-rhotic endings in careful speech. If you’re practicing, place your tongue low at the start, then relax the vowel in the middle and finish with a soft 'r' or a muted end depending on accent.
Two common errors are distributing the stress too evenly across syllables and mispronouncing the middle vowel as a hard 'a' as in 'cat'. Correct by stressing the first syllable: /ˈkæl.ən.dɚ/. For the middle syllable, use a schwa /ə/ or a reduced /ən/ depending on rhythm, and finish with a soft postvocalic /ɚ/ in US English. Practicing with minimal pairs like 'calendar' vs 'calender' can help—'calender' shifts the final sound to /ɚ/ or /ər/. Slow, deliberate enunciation followed by rapid, natural speech will fix rhythm.
In US English you’ll hear /ˈkæl.ən.dɚ/ with a rhotic final /ɚ/. In many UK contexts the ending sounds closer to /-də/ or /-də(r)/ with non-rhoticity on the final syllable, giving /ˈkæl.ən.də/. Australian English tends toward /ˈkælən.də/ with a shorter, clipped second syllable and a non-rhotic finish; the /ɹ/ is often not pronounced unless followed by a vowel. Across accents, the middle syllable tends to be schwa or reduced, while the first syllable remains stressed.
The difficulty lies in the weak, unstressed second syllable and the final rhotic vs non-rhotic endings across accents. The middle /əl/ sequence can blend to a quick schwa plus lateral or a soft /l/ depending on speed, and final /ɚ/ or /ə/ can shift with rhythm and vowel reduction. Mastery requires balancing the fluent light pronunciation of /ə/ with clear onset on /k/ and a gentle, controlled /ɹ/ or its absence in non-rhotic varieties.
A calendar-phoneme nuance is the transition from the solid, stressed /kæ/ onset to the /lən/ cluster, where the /l/ can be darker in some speakers creating /ˈkæl.lən.dər/ or (/ˈkæl.ən.də/). The final /ɚ/ (or /ə/) depends on whether you’re using rhotic or non-rhotic English. Practice with a vowel length cue: keep the first vowel steady, then allow the middle to be quick and muted, finishing with a relaxed tongue root and soft lip rounding.
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Calendar comes from Latin calendarium, meaning a book of accounts or register. The root calendae referred to the first day of the month in the Roman calendar, when debts were settled. From Latin, it passed into Old French as calendario and then directly into English. The sense broadened from a ledger of dates to a systematic arrangement of days and events. The word has retained its core ideas—timekeeping, month/year structure, and scheduling—throughout its evolution, maintaining its association with events and deadlines. Along the way, calendar has absorbed related senses (e.g., calendar year, calendar month) and technical senses (e.g., calendar function in software). The first recorded use in English dates to the 14th century, with the broader modern sense solidifying in the early modern period as printing and public administration popularized standardized date systems.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Calendar" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "Calendar" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "Calendar"
-lar sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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