The International Phonetic Alphabet is a standardised set of symbols, one per distinct speech sound, maintained by the International Phonetic Association. It lets linguists, dictionaries, and language learners write pronunciation unambiguously across any language.

Why does each symbol have a Unicode code point?

Many IPA symbols are not on a normal keyboard, so they are encoded as specific Unicode characters. Knowing the code point lets you insert the exact glyph in HTML, JSON, or a programming string without copy-paste errors.

Which accent does this chart describe?

The vowel set here follows Received Pronunciation, the reference accent used in many British dictionaries. Consonant symbols are largely shared across English accents, though General American differs on some vowels.

The schwa, written as the symbol at code point U+0259, is the neutral mid-central vowel heard in unstressed syllables such as the first sound of about. It is the most common vowel sound in English.

What do the small vertical marks mean?

The raised vertical line is the primary stress mark placed before the stressed syllable, and the lowered line marks secondary stress. The colon-like length mark shows that a vowel is held longer.

IPA Phonetic Symbol Reference

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The International Phonetic Alphabet, symbol by symbol

This reference lists the IPA symbols used to transcribe English pronunciation. Each entry pairs a symbol with its phonetic description, an English example word, and the Unicode code point you need to insert that exact character in a document or program. Use it as a quick lookup when reading dictionary transcriptions or building language tools.

How it works

Every sound the IPA can write is a phoneme — a contrastive unit of sound. Symbols are organised by how they are produced: where in the mouth (place) and how the airflow is shaped (manner). Vowels are described by tongue height and frontness; consonants by place (bilabial, alveolar, velar) and manner (plosive, fricative, nasal, approximant) plus voicing. Because most IPA glyphs are not ASCII, each has a fixed Unicode code point, so the schwa is always U+0259 and the velar nasal is always U+014B. Stress and length are shown with suprasegmental marks rather than separate sounds.

Tips and notes

Search vowel, fricative, or diphthong to pull up a whole sound class at once.
Click a symbol to copy the exact glyph — paste it into HTML entities, JSON strings, or markup without retyping.
This is the Received Pronunciation reference set; some vowels differ in General American (for example the lot vowel), so check your target accent when transcribing.