Pronunciation key
Currently showing entries for ए e and ऐ ai · 664 entries · Monier-Williams, 1872
Pronunciations are broad phonemic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), generated from the IAST spelling with a fixed rule table, aiming at a careful English speaker’s rendering of classical Sanskrit. Vowel length is kept (ā /ɑː/ against a /ə/); retroflex consonants use true IPA symbols /ʈ ɖ ɳ ʂ/ so they stay distinct from the dentals; aspirates are marked /ʰ/ (voiceless) and /ʱ/ (voiced, breathy). Stress is not marked, hyphens are ignored, and a final short a is pronounced /ə/.
| IAST | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| a | /ə/ | short a, as in “about” |
| ā | /ɑː/ | as in “father” |
| i | /ɪ/ | as in “bit” |
| ī | /iː/ | as in “machine” |
| u | /ʊ/ | as in “put” |
| ū | /uː/ | as in “rule” |
| ṛ / ṝ | /rɪ/ /riː/ | vocalic r, said “ri” (English habit) |
| ḷ | /lɪ/ | vocalic l (rare) |
| e | /eː/ | long, as in “they” without the glide |
| o | /oː/ | long, as in “go” without the glide |
| ai | /aɪ/ | as in “aisle” |
| au | /aʊ/ | as in “loud” |
| k g | /k ɡ/ | |
| kh gh | /kʰ ɡʱ/ | aspirated: audible puff (ʰ) or breathy release (ʱ) |
| ṅ | /ŋ/ | as in “sing” |
| c j | /tʃ dʒ/ | as in “church”, “judge” |
| ch jh | /tʃʰ dʒʱ/ | aspirated |
| ñ | /ɲ/ | as in Spanish “ñ” |
| ṭ ḍ ṇ | /ʈ ɖ ɳ/ | retroflex: tongue tip curled back |
| ṭh ḍh | /ʈʰ ɖʱ/ | retroflex aspirates |
| t d n | /t d n/ | dental in Sanskrit; shown with plain English symbols |
| th dh | /tʰ dʱ/ | NB: th is t + breath, never English “thin” |
| p b m | /p b m/ | |
| ph bh | /pʰ bʱ/ | NB: ph is p + breath, never “f” |
| y r l v | /j r l v/ | v shown as English /v/ (strictly a soft /ʋ/) |
| ś | /ʃ/ | as in “ship” |
| ṣ | /ʂ/ | retroflex “sh” |
| s h | /s h/ | |
| ḻ ḻh | /ɭ ɭʱ/ | Vedic retroflex l |
| ṃ (anusvāra) | /ŋ ɲ ɳ n m/ | nasal matching the next stop (ŋ before k-row, ɲ before c-row, ɳ before ṭ-row, n before t-row, m before p-row); /m/ elsewhere |
| ḥ (visarga) | /h/ | a light breath |
How to read an entry
Spelling notes MW’s word division (e.g. a-kāla), homonym number, vowel length, retroflex and aspirated consonants, anusvāra/visarga, Devanagari conjuncts, and the “Ved.” (Vedic) label. Etymology gives what the entry itself says (roots marked √, cognates exactly as MW lists them); where MW gives nothing, a derivation is supplied only when plain from his own word division and is labelled “inferred”, otherwise “not given”. Meanings are trimmed at a sense boundary for length (marked “…”). The 1872 edition prints no Vedic accents.
Abbreviations
| Form | Meaning |
|---|---|
| m. | masculine |
| f. | feminine |
| n. | neuter |
| ind. | indeclinable (adverb, particle etc.) |
| (as, ā, am) etc. | nominative singular endings m./f./n.: MW 1872 marks adjectives this way (later editions use “mfn.”) |
| (am), n. … within a gloss | switch of sense with a change of gender/ending |
| cl. 1–10 | verb class (gaṇa) of a root |
| P. | Parasmaipada (active endings) |
| A. | Ātmanepada (middle endings) |
| Caus. | causative |
| Desid. | desiderative |
| Intens. | intensive |
| Pass. | passive |
| part. | participle |
| ind. part. | indeclinable participle (gerund) |
| inf. | infinitive |
| pl., du. | plural, dual |
| acc., instr., dat., abl., gen., loc., voc. | cases |
| Vedic (MW: Ved.) | found in Vedic texts |
| name of (MW: N. of) | proper name |
| q.v. | which see |
| s.v. | under that word |
| cf. | compare |
| rt., √ | root (dhātu) |
| from (MW: fr.) | derived from |
| ˚ | MW’s abbreviation sign for a repeated part of a word |
| Sāy. | Sāyaṇa, the 14th-c. Vedic commentator |
| Gram. | grammarians |
| L. | Linnaeus (in botanical names) |
| Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, English | cognates (MW abbreviations expanded) |
| Old High German | MW’s “Old Germ.” |
| Zend | Avestan |
| Lith., Slav., Hib., Cambro-Brit., Angl. Sax., Old Pruss. | Lithuanian, Slavonic, Irish, Welsh, Anglo-Saxon, Old Prussian |
| phil. | philosophy |
| lit. | literally |
| opp. | opposed to |
| sc. | scilicet, namely |
| … | gloss trimmed for length in this edition |
Source and licence. Monier Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Etymologically and Philologically Arranged (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1872; first edition). Digital text: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries (MW72, csl-orig/v02/mw72), © Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon project contributors, Cologne University, accessed 7 October 2026, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, provided without warranty.
Changes made here: entries for ए e and ऐ ai only; meanings trimmed for length and MW abbreviations expanded; Devanagari generated from the SLP1 keys with indic_transliteration; spelling notes, IPA pronunciations and labelled (“inferred”/“not given”) etymologies added. This adapted dictionary text is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Fonts: Noto Serif and Noto Serif Devanagari (SIL Open Font License).