One syllable: morn.
mawrn
/mɔɹn/
morn is pronounced mawrn (/mɔɹn/). It has one syllable (morn), with the stress on "morn". Morn is an informal, archaic, or dialectal noun meaning “morning.” In modern usage it appears mainly in poetry or regional speech, signifying the early part of the day. The term carries a lyrical or rustic connotation and can function as a time reference or a greeting in set phrases. It is pronounced with a single stressed syllable and a short, rounded vowel.
Morn is an informal, archaic, or dialectal noun meaning “morning.” In modern usage it appears mainly in poetry or regional speech, signifying the early part of the day. The term carries a lyrical or rustic connotation and can function as a time reference or a greeting in set phrases. It is pronounced with a single stressed syllable and a short, rounded vowel.
"- The dew glistened on the grass at morn, just before the sun rose."
"- She rose at morn and walked the fields before the chores began."
"- In the old tale, the hero set out at morn to avoid the frost."
Pronounce it as one syllable: /mɔrn/ in US (US: /mɔrn/; UK/AU: /mɔːn/). Start with a bilabial /m/ with closed lips, then an open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔ/ or /ɔː/ depending on accent, then the final alveolar nasal /n/. The mouth closes quickly, giving a crisp, clipped ending. Stress is on the single syllable. Listen for the short, compact vowel in US and the longer vowel in UK/AU. Audio example: typical pronunciation with a short, dark vowel in American speech and a longer, rounded vowel in the UK/Australian varieties.
Common mistakes include rendering the vowel as a lax /ɒ/ or /ɑ/ in American speech, which can blur into ‘man’ or ‘marn,’ and adding an unnecessary schwa after the /ɔ/ that disrupts the one-syllable rhythm. Another error is trying to pronounce a clear /ɔː/ diphthong in US contexts; keep it short and steady. Keep the lips rounded but not protruding; relax the jaw at the vowel onset to avoid a tense, drawn-out sound.
In US English, morn is typically a short, clipped /mɔrn/ with a mid/open back vowel and a dark final /ɹ/ often not strongly rhotic in some regional accents; the /r/ is lightly pronounced in rhotic regions. In UK and AU, it tends toward /mɔːn/ with a longer, rounded back vowel and a more distinct /n/ at the end; rhoticity is variable in non-rhotic UK accents, so the /r/ may be less audible. Overall, US favors a shorter vowel; UK/AU favor a longer, more vowel-lengthened 'o' sound.
The challenge lies in the short, clipped vowel and the rapid closure to /n/ without introducing extraneous schwa sounds. For speakers used to “morning,” trimming the vowel duration and avoiding a vowel shift to /ɜː/ or /ɔɪ/ requires precise tongue posture: a high, relaxed tongue for the initial place of articulation, with the jaw slightly lowered and lips rounded just enough before the final nasal closure.
Yes. The word is a single, compact unit with no vowel sequence or stress shift. Keep the vowel short and the syllable tight; any added vowel or diphthong would shift it toward “morning.” Focus on maintaining a clean /ɔ/ or /ɔː/ quality without inserting a postvocalic vowel. The final /n/ should be crisp, not nasalized. This precision ensures the rustic, archaic flavor remains intact.
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Morn traces its roots to Old English morne, morne or morgen, from a Proto-Germanic root *murniz which denoted dawn or morning. The term evolved from a common Germanic word for the early part of the day and is cognate with Dutch morgen and German Morgen, all sharing the sense of the first light of day. In Middle English, morn appeared in poetry and prosaic narrative as a standalone noun and as part of set phrases (e.g., “at morn”). The word’s semantic breadth widened to include poetic and archaic registers, and it has persisted in regional dialects, farm literature, and some archaic forms of the language. Though largely supplanted by “morning” in everyday speech, morn endures in literature, hymns, and rural speech, often signaling rustic charm, simplicity, or a lyrical mood, with first attested uses in early medieval English texts.
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Words that rhyme with "morn"
-orn sounds
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