4 syllables: Sa, bou, raud's A, gar. Stress on raud's A.
sab-uh-rood-ZE-guhr
/sæbəˈruːdz ˈeɡər/
Sabouraud's Agar is pronounced sab-uh-rood-ZE-guhr (/sæbəˈruːdz ˈeɡər/). It has four syllables (Sa-bou-raud's A-gar), with the stress on "raud's A". Sabouraud's Agar is a nutrient-rich culture medium used to grow fungi, especially dermatophytes and yeasts. It contains peptone, glucose, and dextrose, with an acidic pH to inhibit bacteria. The term refers both to the medium and its inventor, Sabouraud, and the acronym “Agar” denotes the gel-like substance that solidifies the medium.
nounSabouraud's Agar is a nutrient-rich culture medium used to grow fungi, especially dermatophytes and yeasts. It contains peptone, glucose, and dextrose, with an acidic pH to inhibit bacteria. The term refers both to the medium and its inventor, Sabouraud, and the acronym “Agar” denotes the gel-like substance that solidifies the medium.
How to Pronounce Sabouraud's Agar
"In the microbiology lab, we prepared Sabouraud's Agar to isolate dermatophytes from the skin sample."
"The technician plated the specimen on Sabouraud's Agar and incubated it at 25°C."
"Sabouraud's Agar is preferred for fungal cultures due to its selective acidity."
Pronounce as sah-boo-ROH, with the final syllable stress on ROH. In full: /ˌsæ.bʊˈroʊ/ for US, extending to the possessive form with /z/ and the word Agar as AH-ger. Think ‘sab-o-ROD’ with the mid syllable paused. Audio reference: standard academic pronunciation audio for Sabouraud’s Agar shows the primary stress on the second syllable’s final vowel: sab-u-ROH-d, and then possessive ending /z/.
Common errors: misplacing the primary stress on the first syllable (SA-bour-aud), and anglicizing the final -d of Sabouraud’s into a hard /d/ rather than a soft /dʒ/ sound in some accents. Correction: keep the stress on the second syllable’s end: /ˌsæ.bʊˈroʊ/. For the word Agar, avoid merging into ‘A-ay-ger’; say AH-ger with a soft ‘g’ as in ‘ger’.
US: /ˌsæ.bəˈroʊd/ with rhotic R and clear second-syllable stress. UK: /ˌsæ.bəˈruː/ where the final vowel in Sabouraud shifts; Australian: often /ˌsæ.bəˈroː/ with a broader vowel in the final syllable. The main variation is vowel quality in the Sabouraud stem and the final /d/ or /dʒ/ influence; rhoticity is a factor in US accents vs non-rhotic UK varieties, though technical terms are typically rhotic in all contexts.
Difficulty arises from the French surname Sabouraud (accented vowels, three syllables) and the compound with Agar. The root sabou- ends with /u/ followed by /ˈroʊ/ in American practice; many speakers misplace stress or simplify to /ˈsæ.bə.rɔː/. Focus on splitting Sabouraud into sab-oo-roh and placing primary stress on the final syllable before Agar. The possessive adds /z/, which can blur if spoken quickly.
Sabouraud’s contains a French-derived name with three syllables, and the typical English rendering places the stress on the third syllable of the root and the end of the name as /roʊ/ before Agar. A unique question is whether to pronounce the root as sab-u-roh- or sab-oo-rawd in quick speech; the accepted version is sab-oo-ROD with the /d/ realized in most English varieties, and the suffix -s carries /z/ in the possessive.
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Sabouraud's Agar derives from the French dermatologist and microbiologist Raymond Sabouraud (1863–1938), who pioneered fungal culture methods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term Sabouraud’s Agar combines his surname with agar, the gelatinous substance extracted from seaweed used as a solidifying agent in microbial culture. The approach emerged from Sabouraud’s experiments cultivating fungi from clinical specimens, recognizing that fungi thrive on media with low pH and selective nutrients. The naming convention honors his contributions to medical mycology, and the product’s evolution reflects refinements in nutrient composition (peptone, dextrose, glucose) and pH adjustments to inhibit bacteria while promoting fungal growth. First widely cited in academic microbiology literature in the early 1900s, Sabouraud’s Agar became a standard reference medium for isolating dermatophytes and yeasts. Over time, variants appeared (e.g., with antibiotics such as gentamicin or chloramphenicol) to further suppress bacterial contaminants, while the core formulation retained Sabouraud’s original aim: a reliable, selective fungal culture environment suitable for diagnostic and research use.
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Words that rhyme with "Sabouraud's Agar"
-gar sounds
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