3 syllables: With, draw, al. Stress on draw.
with-DRAW-uhl
/wɪðˈdɹɔəl/
Withdrawal is pronounced with-DRAW-uhl (/wɪðˈdɹɔəl/). It has three syllables (With-draw-al), with the stress on "draw". Withdrawal is a noun referring to the act of retreating or removing something, or the process of ceasing a habit or substance. It can indicate a physical withdrawal from a location or from a habit, and in medical contexts it denotes the symptoms that occur when stopping a substance. The term often appears in finance (withdrawal of funds) and psychology (withdrawal symptoms).
nounWithdrawal is a noun referring to the act of retreating or removing something, or the process of ceasing a habit or substance. It can indicate a physical withdrawal from a location or from a habit, and in medical contexts it denotes the symptoms that occur when stopping a substance. The term often appears in finance (withdrawal of funds) and psychology (withdrawal symptoms).
How to Pronounce Withdrawal
"Her withdrawal from the project surprised the team."
"He made a withdrawal of funds from his bank account."
"The patient experienced withdrawal symptoms after stopping the medication."
Pronunciation: wɪðˈdrɔːəl. The first syllable is a short /ɪ/ with a voiced interdental /ð/ (the TH sound). The second syllable bears the primary stress: /ˈdrɔː/ with a long, rounded /ɔː/ vowel. The final syllable is /əl/ with a schwa plus light /l/. In connected speech, the middle /drɔː/ may feel slightly reduced, but keep the /ɔː/ quality distinct. Reference: IPA shows /wɪðˈdrɔːəl/.
Two common errors: 1) Treating the /ð/ in the first syllable as a simple /d/ or /z/ instead of the voiced dental fricative; keep the airflow and tongue between the teeth. 2) Reducing /ɔː/ to /ɒ/ or a short /ɔ/ in the second syllable, which makes it sound like 'withdrawal' with a weaker middle vowel. Ensure the middle is a clear /ɔː/ and stress stays on the second syllable. Pronounce wɪðˈdrɔːəl to avoid ‘with-drawl’ or ‘withdraw-ul’ mispronunciations.
In US English, /ˈdrɔː/ may be realized with a clear /ɔː/ before the /l/; some speakers may have a tighter /ɔr/ sequence if the pronunciation leans toward rhoticity in fast speech. UK and AU varieties keep /ɔː/ more distinctly as a pure long vowel in the stressed syllable; final /əl/ tends to be a lighter, schwa-like sound and a clear /l/. Overall, the rhotic influence is minimal in UK/AU forms; US may show subtle rhotic Liaison in rapid speech. IPA: US wɪðˈdrɔːəl; UK wɪðˈdrɔːəl; AU wɪðˈdrɔːəl.
The difficulty centers on three features: the initial /ð/ is a voiced dental fricative that many learners substitute with /d/ or /z/; the long /ɔː/ in the stressed second syllable requires jaw and lip rounding without shortening; and the final /əl/ reduces to a light, unstressed schwa+lip, which can blur in connected speech. Keeping the /ð/ precise, maintaining the long /ɔː/, and not over-reducing the final syllable are key to clarity.
Why is the middle syllable in 'Withdrawal' spelled with ‘dr’ but pronounced with a separate /dr/ cluster instead of a single /dr/ digraph? The answer: English accepts complex consonant clusters; here /dr/ begins the stressed syllable and is followed by the long /ɔː/ vowel. The tenseness of the /d/ plus the alveolar /r/ requires precise tongue blade contact and rapid transition to the rounded /ɔː/ vowel. IPA: /wɪðˈdrɔːəl/
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Withdrawal comes from the verb withdraw, which itself derives from Old English butwið, meaning away, and withdragan, meaning to drag away. The compound elements reflect an action of pulling back or dragging away. In Middle English, forms like withdrawe or withdrowen appeared, gradually consolidating into the modern noun withdrawal by the 15th century. The term initially centered on physical pulling away or retreat; over time it broadened to abstract senses such as pulling back from a commitment, a location, or a habit. In finance and medicine, the phrase gained specialized senses by the 19th and 20th centuries, describing removal of funds or cessation of a drug, with withdrawal symptoms described in clinical literature as the body’s response to stopping a substance. The word’s pronunciation has preserved the stress pattern from withdraw, with the primary stress on the second syllable: with- DRAW- al, but the noun form carries the stress on the second syllable as well, reflecting its historical phonology of a strong syllable after a fixed prefix. Modern usage retains the general sense of moving away or removing, while domain-specific definitions emphasize the act of taking back or ceasing something.
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Words that rhyme with "Withdrawal"
-awl sounds
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