PARTIAL AND ABSENT PRONUNCIATIONS

When a main entry has less than a full pronunciation, the missing part is to be supplied from a pronunciation in a preceding entry or within the pronunciation field:

Main Entry: cham.pi.on.ship
Pronunciation: -"ship

Main Entry: Ma.dei.ra
Pronunciation: m&-'dir-&, -'der-

The pronunciation of the first three syllables of championship is found at the main entry champion:

Main Entry: ¹cham.pi.on
Pronunciation: 'cham-pE-&n

The hyphens before and after \'der\ in the pronunciation of Madeira indicate that both the first and the last parts of the pronunciation are to be taken from the immediately preceding pronunciation. Partial pronunciations are usually shown when two or more variants have a part in common. When a variation of stress is involved, a partial pronunciation may be terminated at the stress mark which stands at the beginning of a syllable not shown:

Main Entry: di.verse
Pronunciation: dI-'v&rs, d&-', 'dI-"

Main Entry: an.cho.vy
Pronunciation: 'an-"chO-vE, an-'

In general, no pronunciation is indicated for open compounds consisting of two or more English words that have own-place entry:

Main Entry: witch doctor
Function: noun

A pronunciation is shown, however, for any element of an open compound that does not have entry at its own alphabetical place:

Main Entry: Oc.cam's razor
Pronunciation: 'ä-k&mz-

Main Entry: sieve of Er.a.tos.the.nes
Pronunciation: -"er-&-'täs-th&-"nEz

Only the first entry in a sequence of numbered homographs is given a pronunciation if their pronunciations are the same:

Main Entry: ¹re.ward
Pronunciation: ri-'word

Main Entry: ²reward

Pronunciations are shown for obsolete words only if they occur in Shakespeare:

Main Entry: clois.tress
Pronunciation: 'kloi-str&s
Function: noun
Usage: obsolete
: nun

The pronunciation of unpronounced derivatives and compounds run on at a main entry is a combination of the pronunciation at the main entry and the pronunciation of the suffix or final element as given at its alphabetical place in the vocabulary:

--oval.ness noun

--shot in the dark

Thus, the pronunciation of ovalness is the sum of the pronunciations given at oval and -ness; that of shot in the dark, the sum of the pronunciation of the four elements that make up the phrase.

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