3 syllables: con, cord, ance. Stress on cord.
kuhn-KAWR-duhns
/kənˈkɔɹdəns/
concordance is pronounced kuhn-KAWR-duhns (/kənˈkɔɹdəns/). It has three syllables (con-cord-ance), with the stress on "cord". Concordance refers to agreement or harmony between facts, ideas, or people, or to a reference index in scholarly works. The term can also describe concordant data in statistics or a concordance record in medical or linguistic corpora. It conveys alignment, compatibility, or a systematic listing that reflects connectedness or consistency among elements.
Concordance refers to agreement or harmony between facts, ideas, or people, or to a reference index in scholarly works. The term can also describe concordant data in statistics or a concordance record in medical or linguistic corpora. It conveys alignment, compatibility, or a systematic listing that reflects connectedness or consistency among elements.
"The panel reached a concordance on the policy, aligning goals across departments."
"Linguists used a concordance of the Bible to study word frequencies and meanings."
"There was a concordance between test results and observed symptoms."
Pronounce as kən-KOR-dans (US) or kən-KOR-dən(t)s (UK). The main stress is on the second syllable: coN-COR-dance. Start with a schwa, then a clear 'KOR' with the r-colored vowel, and end with an 'dance' or 'dence' sound depending on accent. IPA: US: /kənˈkɔːr.dəns/; UK: /kənˈkɔː.dəns/; AU: /kənˈkɔː.dəns/.
Common errors: flattening the second syllable so it’s /kon-kaw-rance/ rather than /kɔːr.dəns/; misplacing the 'r' or making it a silent 'r' in non-rhotic accents; mispronouncing the final 'dance' as 'dense' or 'dence' without the subtle /ɔː/ vowel. Correction: emphasize /ˈkɔːr/ with a clear rhotic vowel in American English, keep the 'n' before the 'd' and produce a light 'əns' ending. Practice with minimal pairs to feel the vowel quality and final syllable rhythm.
US tends to maintain a pronounced rhotacized /ˈkɔːr/ and a full /dəns/ ending; UK often sounds slightly less rhotic with a softer /dəs/ ending; AU is similar to US but with subtle vowel shifts in /ˈkɔː.dəns/ and a possibly less pronounced second syllable. In all, the vowel in the stressed syllable is rounded and elongated; the final -ance often bears a schwa plus /n(t)s/ depending on connected speech.
The difficulty lies in the mid syllable /ˈkɔːr/ where the vowel quality and rhoticity must sync smoothly, plus the final 'dence/dons' cluster where the /n/ blends into /s/ or /ns/ with possible assimilation. Learners often misplace stress or reduce the second syllable too much, producing coN-COR-dance vs coN-kor-DAN-s. Practice to keep the stress steady on the second syllable and maintain a crisp /r/ and a clear /əns/ ending.
Yes—its second syllable hosts a tense, rhotacized vowel /ɔː/ followed by an /r/ in rhotic accents. The sequence /ˈkɔːr/ can be challenging for non-rhotic speakers who drop the /r/, making the word sound incomplete. Focus on the rhotic carrier before the consonant cluster /dən(t)s/; the ending can shift to /dəs/ in some accents. Mastery comes from treating /ˈkɔːr.dəns/ as a unit with even, precise articulation.
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US: •Stress on the second syllable: /kənˈkɔːr.dəns/. Ensure /ɔː/ is long and rhotics are pronounced: /r/ in 'cor'. •Keep the 'n' soft between /r/ and /d/. UK: • Often less rhotic; final /r/ less audible. Use /kənˈkɔː.dən(t)s/ with a slightly shorter second syllable and a less pronounced /r/. •Maintain a crisp /d/ before the nasal cluster; avoid vowel reduction in the second syllable. AU: • Similar to US; may have slight vowel centralization: /kənˈkɔː.dəns/ with a lighter /r/ influence. Moderate rhoticity; keep the /ɔː/ vowel quality consistent across dialects. IPA references: US /kənˈkɔːr.dəns/, UK /kənˈkɔː.dəns/, AU /kənˈkɔː.dəns/.
Concordance comes from the Latin concordantia, from con- ‘together’ + -cordus ‘heart, agreement’ (related to cord- ‘heart’). The Latin form conveyed harmony or agreement. In English, concordance appeared in the 15th century to describe agreement, or in scholarly usage as a reference index listing occurrences of words in a text. Its sense broadened to denote a systematic, parallel listing (as in linguistic corpora) and, in medical or statistical contexts, a measure or record showing correspondence or agreement between datasets. The word has long been used in theology and linguistics, where precise alignment or matching of terms and meanings is essential. The modern sense in information retrieval and corpus linguistics—an index of word occurrences and their contexts—emerged with the growth of textual databases and computational linguistics in the 20th century. First known use in English documents traces to Middle English literature with Latin roots in scholarly and religious discourses that emphasized unity and alignment between elements.
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Words that rhyme with "concordance"
-nce sounds
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