To pronounce "obstacle", say OBST-acl-e — 3 syllables, IPA /ˈɑbstəkəɫ/. Tap play below to hear it in four English accents, or practice it syllable by syllable.
obstacle
Tap to hear · American accent
Accent
If an accent sounds the same, your device is missing that voice — it falls back to the closest one.
Speed
Syllable by syllable — tap each one
Record yourself saying obstacle, then compare with the target. Your audio stays on this device — nothing is uploaded.
3
Syllables
8
Letters
/ˈɑbstəkəɫ/
🇺🇸 IPA (US)
/ˈɒbstəkəl/
🇬🇧 IPA (UK)
Break "obstacle" into 3 beats and lean on "OBST" — that's the stressed one.
noun
“A big obstacle to understanding the manual was that it had been poorly translated from the Japanese.”
Real example sentences from Tatoeba (CC-BY) — tap to hear each one, or see it used on YouGlish.
"Obstacle" has 3 syllables: obst · acl · e.
The IPA transcription of "obstacle" is /ˈɑbstəkəɫ/.
Obstacle: Something that impedes, stands in the way of, or holds up progress
Want the definition, translations into 8 languages, and read-aloud for full sentences?
Open “obstacle” in the full dictionary →