How to pronounce "petawatt" in English
pe·ta·watt
Hear native speakers say petawatt in context across real video clips
Linguistic Pronunciation Masterclass: “petawatt”
Phonetic mechanics, syllable architecture, and conversational cadence
Syllable Architecture & Stress Distribution
pe
Reduced vowel sound, relaxed jaw, and minimal vocal effort.
ta
Reduced vowel sound, relaxed jaw, and minimal vocal effort.
watt
Reduced vowel sound, relaxed jaw, and minimal vocal effort.
Keep the vowel length balanced, placing subtle emphasis on the root morpheme according to standard conversational rhythm.
Common Pronunciation Traps & Learner Mistakes
The Trap: Pronouncing a hard, aspirated [tʰ] in casual conversation can sound overly formal in North America.
How Native Speakers Say It: In American English, a single "t" between vowels quickly taps against the alveolar ridge like a soft "d" ([ɾ]). In British English, maintain a crisp aspirated [tʰ].
Connected Speech & Natural Conversational Flow
When "petawatt" is followed by a word starting with a vowel, glide the final consonant into the opening vowel (e.g. "petawatt is" sounds like "petawatt-iz").
Maintain the stress-timed rhythm of English: compress unstressed syllables rapidly so the beat of "petawatt" aligns naturally with adjacent words.
Authentic Spoken Quotes from Native Video Context
“And so we at the university are making proposals to build two 25 petawatt lasers, maybe 30 petawatt lasers.”— WIREDWatch clip
“petawatt means 10 to the 15.”— MIT OpenCourseWareWatch clip
“of the enormous opportunities that lies between 13, 000MW to the bridge that has one petawatt.”— TEDx TalksWatch clip
“So a petawatt is 10 to the 15th watts.”— YaleCoursesWatch clip
“and we in our strategic technology energy plan are looking at 380 gigawatts out of 2050. so it's a roughly. 34 petawatt hours”— StanfordWatch clip
“But I had never heard of a petawatt hour until I wrote a book on climate change solutions.”— Native SpeakerWatch clip
Practice Speaking “petawatt”
Listen to native pronunciation, record yourself repeating the sentence into your microphone, and receive real-time word-by-word accuracy scoring.
And so we at the university are making proposals to build two 25 petawatt lasers, maybe 30 petawatt lasers.
Hear it in context: “petawatt”
24 clipsThe English word “petawatt”. Phonologically, it consists of 3 syllables (pe · ta · watt). Grammatically, “petawatt” functions as a noun. SayItVid indexes 24 authentic English video clips demonstrating how native speakers articulate “petawatt” in natural connected speech across American (US: 8 sampled), British (UK), and Australian (AUS) accents, including verified broadcasts from WIRED, MIT OpenCourseWare, TEDx Talks.
Spoken Video Transcripts & Contextual Quotes (5 Verified Clips)
- 🇺🇸 USWIREDClip #1 · @19:17
“it's been a motivator for me for a long time. And so we at the university are making proposals to build two 25 petawatt lasers, maybe 30 petawatt lasers. to build two 25 petawatt lasers, maybe 30 petawatt lasers.”
- 🇺🇸 USMIT OpenCourseWareClip #2 · @34:13
“watts. And I don't know if you've heard of this word here, petawatt. And petawatt means 10 to the 15. This case, 10 to the 15 watts. And also recently, we read that some people have produced exawatt”
- 🇺🇸 USTEDx TalksClip #3 · @16:56
“and start to position ourselves to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that lies between 13, 000MW to the bridge that has one petawatt. to the bridge that has one petawatt.”
- 🇺🇸 USYaleCoursesClip #4 · @31:13
“going up till you get to peta, which is 10 to the 15th. So a petawatt is 10 to the 15th watts. So for example, at a latitude of about”
- 🇺🇸 USStanfordClip #5 · @9:13
“course is part of the solution is going to be solar and we in our strategic technology energy plan are looking at 380 gigawatts out of 2050. so it's a roughly. 34 petawatt hours out of 2050. so it's a roughly.34 petawatt hours”
Definition & Meaning: “petawatt”
- An SI unit of power equal to 10¹⁵ watts. Symbol: PW. An amount of power much larger than all the power generated by all power stations on Earth. (Consuming 1 petawatt during a duration of 1 hour would consume 1 petawatt-hour of energy.)
Example Sentences (3)
- “Meronyms: mW, milliwatt < W, watt < kW, kilowatt < MW, megawatt < GW, gigawatt < TW, terawatt”
- “And so we at the university are making proposals to build two 25 petawatt lasers, maybe 30 petawatt lasers.”
- “petawatt means 10 to the 15. This case, 10 to the 15 watts. And also recently,”
Common Phrases & Collocations
Pronounce: “petawatt”
- Syllables:
- pe · ta · watt
- Hear it in context
- petawatt
Words that Sound Identical (Homophones)
Unique Sound"petawatt" has no true homophones in standard English — there are no other words with identical pronunciation. Unlike sound-alike pairs like there / their or peace / piece, "petawatt" has a completely distinct phonetic identity.
Frequently asked questions about petawatt
How many syllables are in “petawatt”?
“petawatt” has 3 syllables: pe · ta · watt.
What does “petawatt” mean?
An SI unit of power equal to 10¹⁵ watts. Symbol: PW. An amount of power much larger than all the power generated by all power stations on Earth. (Consuming 1 petawatt during a duration of 1 hour would consume 1 petawatt-hour of energy.)
How can I hear “petawatt” used in real sentences?
This page has 24 real-world video examples of “petawatt” with synchronized subtitles. Use Previous / Next (or ← / → keys) to hear each one at the exact moment it is spoken.
What is the most common pronunciation mistake when saying “petawatt”?
Pronouncing a hard, aspirated [tʰ] in casual conversation can sound overly formal in North America. In American English, a single "t" between vowels quickly taps against the alveolar ridge like a soft "d" ([ɾ]). In British English, maintain a crisp aspirated [tʰ].