Pronunciation guide

How to pronounce schizophrenia

skit-suh-FREE-nee-uh - five syllables, stress on 'FREE'; 'sch' is 'sk'

US/ˌskɪtsəˈfɹiniə/

skɪtfɹiniə

UK/skɪtsəʊˈfɹiːniə/

skɪtsəʊfɹiːniə

New to IPA symbols? Read the IPA guide.

Common mistake

The 'sch' is 'sk' - 'skit-suh-FREE-nee-uh'.

What “schizophrenia” means

A psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness characterised by abnormal perception, thinking, behavior and emotion, often marked by delusions.

A condition in which a person is supposed to have several distinct personalities; dissociative identity disorder.

In a sentence

  • Schizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent mental illness with abnormal perception and thinking.
  • Public understanding of schizophrenia has improved, but stigma remains.

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Definitions and examples are derived from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, then edited by QuickPronounce. Pronunciation data draws on CMUdict.