Menagerie is a noun meaning a collection of diverse animals kept in captivity for exhibition. It also refers to a varied or unusual group of things. The term implies a curated assortment, often with a sense of heterogeneity and spectacle rather than a strictly scientific collection.
"The traveling circus featured a menagerie of lions, tigers, and elephants."
"Her garden was a charming menagerie of exotic plants and quirky statues."
"The museum's courtyard housed a menagerie of rare, colorful birds."
"He owned a literary menagerie of strange manuscripts and peculiar inscribed artifacts."
Menagerie comes from Old French menagerie, which referred to a place where animals were kept, especially for exhibition. The ultimate root is the Old French word menage or messagerie, derived from the Latin milieu of accommoding or managing, with influence from venary (hunting) and venator (hunter). By the 17th century, English borrowed the term to denote a collection of varied creatures in menageries and circuses. The sense broadened in the 18th and 19th centuries to include any varied assortment of objects or beings displayed for curiosity or entertainment. The word’s evolution mirrors changing social attitudes toward exotic animals and curated displays, moving from a strictly practical enclosure to a thematic, spectacle-driven collection. The pronunciation likely stabilized in Middle English through French influence, with stress shifting to the second syllable in many British uses and a tendency toward a vowel quality that reflects French loanword features in English phonology.
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Words that rhyme with "Menagerie"
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Pronunciation: /ˌmɛnəˈdʒeəri/ (US) or /ˌmenəˈdʒeəri/ (UK/AU). Syllables: men-a-jer-ie, with primary stress on the third syllable. Start with /ˈmɛn/ (like 'men'), then /ə/ (unstressed schwa), then /ˈdʒeə/ or /ˈdʒeə/ as a voiced affricate onset /dʒ/ followed by a long /eə/ vowel, and finally /ri/ or /əri/ depending on speaker. For emphasis, you can say Men-a-JER-ie with the stress on JER. Audio reference: try listening to reputable dictionaries or pronunciation videos and mimic the rhythm of the stressed second-to-last syllable.
Common errors: (1) Stress misplaced on the first or second syllable, making 'MEN-a-jee-ree' or 'men-a-JER-ee' awkward. (2) Mispronouncing the /dʒ/ as /j/ or /tʃ/; keep it as a single affricate /dʒ/. (3) Vowel quality in the second syllable: avoid a full /e/; use a relaxed /ə/ (schwa). Corrections: emphasize the /ənə/ sequence lightly, then land on /dʒeəri/ with a clear /eə/ before a soft /ri/.
US: /ˌmɛnəˈdʒeəri/ with rhotic /r/ in most speakers and a pronounced /ɪ/ in the first vowel of the second syllable. UK: /ˌmenəˈdʒeəri/ with a slightly shorter /ɪ/ and non-rhotic tendency for some speakers, though many British speakers still pronounce the final /ri/ clearly. AU: similar to US but with broader vowels in some dialects; you may notice a more open /æ/ in the first syllable for some speakers, and a glided end. Overall, the /dʒ/ onset remains consistent across accents, with tense vs lax vowel differences.
The difficulty lies in the three-syllable rhythm and the /dʒ/ cluster combined with a reduced second syllable. The primary stress lands on the third syllable, which can be easy to overlook when speaking quickly. The long /eə/ sequence in /dʒeə/ and the trailing /ri/ or /əri/ vary by accent, requiring precise tongue posture for the affricate and careful lip rounding for the diphthong. Mastery comes from practicing the full syllable chain slowly and then integrating it into natural speech.
There are no silent letters in standard pronunciations of 'menagerie'. It is pronounced with five phonetic segments across three syllables: /ˌmɛnəˈdʒeəri/ (US) or /ˌmenəˈdʒeəri/ (UK/AU). The blend /dʒ/ is a single phoneme, not two separate sounds, and no letter is silent. Practicing with careful articulation of /dʒ/ and the schwa in the second syllable will help you avoid common slurring mistakes.
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