Heteronym
"Suspect" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say SUS-pekt when it means a person thought to have done wrong (noun), and suh-SPEKT when it means to believe something without proof (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
noun
SUS-pekt
a person thought to have done wrong
“Police questioned the suspect.”
verb
suh-SPEKT
to believe something without proof
“I suspect she is right.”
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 |
|---|---|---|
| SUS-pekt | noun | a person thought to have done wrong |
| suh-SPEKT | verb | to believe something without proof |
"Suspect" has two different pronunciations with two different meanings. Say SUS-pekt when it means a person thought to have done wrong (noun), and suh-SPEKT when it means to believe something without proof (verb). Which one is correct depends entirely on the sentence.
Pronounced SUS-pekt, "suspect" is a noun meaning a person thought to have done wrong. For example: "Police questioned the suspect."
Pronounced suh-SPEKT, "suspect" is a verb meaning to believe something without proof. For example: "I suspect she is right."
"Suspect" 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 “suspect”, browse all 76 heteronyms and stress pairs, or learn how English stress works.