What does "non-rhotic" mean?

Of an accent, most often one of English: not pronouncing the written letter "r" unless it is followed by a vowel, as in Received Pronunciation, most other accents of England, the Boston accent, traditional NYC English, many accents of southern Louisiana, Australian English, etc.

How do you pronounce "non-rhotic"?

Pronounced //nɒnˈɹəʊtɪk//.

Non-rhotic

//nɒnˈɹəʊtɪk// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Of an accent, most often one of English: not pronouncing the written letter "r" unless it is followed by a vowel, as in Received Pronunciation, most other accents of England, the Boston accent, traditional NYC English, many accents of southern Louisiana, Australian English, etc. not-comparable
"In a non-rhotic accent, the word 'sort' can be pronounced like the word 'sought'."

Antonyms

All antonyms

rhotic

Example

More examples

"In a non-rhotic accent, the word 'sort' can be pronounced like the word 'sought'."

Etymology

From non- + rhotic.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.