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How to spell symphony

hear itsym·pho·ny/'sɪmfəni/nounHidden vowels

What it means: A large musical composition for an orchestra.

In a sentence: The orchestra played a beautiful symphony.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as symphonyy or simphony.

Same family: symphonic, symphonist, orchestra, concerto, composition. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Symphony” comes from the Greek word *symphōnia*, meaning “agreement of sounds” or “harmony.” In the Middle Ages it could mean any harmonious sound together, but later it came to mean the large, multi-movement work for orchestra that we know today.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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