Heteronym
"Attribute" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say AT-truh-byoot when it means a quality or feature (noun), and uh-TRIB-yoot when it means to credit something to a cause (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
noun
AT-truh-byoot
a quality or feature
“Kindness is a great attribute.”
verb
uh-TRIB-yoot
to credit something to a cause
“They attribute it to luck.”
Each button speaks the respelling, not the spelling — otherwise the speech engine would pick a single default pronunciation for both senses.
| Pronunciation | Part of speech | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| AT-truh-byoot | noun | a quality or feature |
| uh-TRIB-yoot | verb | to credit something to a cause |
"Attribute" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say AT-truh-byoot when it means a quality or feature (noun), and uh-TRIB-yoot when it means to credit something to a cause (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
Pronounced AT-truh-byoot, "attribute" is a noun meaning a quality or feature. For example: "Kindness is a great attribute."
Pronounced uh-TRIB-yoot, "attribute" is a verb meaning to credit something to a cause. For example: "They attribute it to luck."
"Attribute" is a heteronym: two distinct words that happen to be spelled the same way. English spelling did not standardise around pronunciation, so unrelated words sometimes converged on one spelling while keeping separate sounds.
See the full entry for “attribute”, browse all 76 heteronyms and stress pairs, or learn how English stress works.