Heteronym
"Incense" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say IN-sens when it means fragrant smoke from burning material (noun), and in-SENS when it means to make very angry (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
noun
IN-sens
fragrant smoke from burning material
“The incense smelled sweet.”
verb
in-SENS
to make very angry
“The delay will incense them.”
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 |
|---|---|---|
| IN-sens | noun | fragrant smoke from burning material |
| in-SENS | verb | to make very angry |
"Incense" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say IN-sens when it means fragrant smoke from burning material (noun), and in-SENS when it means to make very angry (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
Pronounced IN-sens, "incense" is a noun meaning fragrant smoke from burning material. For example: "The incense smelled sweet."
Pronounced in-SENS, "incense" is a verb meaning to make very angry. For example: "The delay will incense them."
"Incense" 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 “incense”, browse all 76 heteronyms and stress pairs, or learn how English stress works.