How to pronounce macaron

Short answer: say mak-uh-RON: three syllables, stressed on the last one, which rhymes with Ron. Cambridge gives /ˌmækəˈrɒn/ for both British and American English, as do Oxford Learner's Dictionaries and Collins for British English; Oxford Learner's American form is mak-uh-RAHN, /ˌmækəˈrɑːn/. Merriam-Webster lists mah-kuh-ROHN, and Dictionary.com puts it first. Mak-uh-ROON is macaroon, the coconut cookie: none of the seven dictionaries below gives it for macaron. In French, it's [makaʁɔ̃], about mah-kah-RAWN, with a nasal vowel.

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Is it macaron or macaroon?

Here is the macaron pronunciation in each dictionary, with macaroon for comparison:

American Heritage adds mah-kuh-RAWN, with a French nasal ending, and mak-uh-RAWN, and Wiktionary an American MAK-uh-rahn, stressed on the first syllable. All the other forms stress the end.

The catch is that macaroon can also name the French cookie: Merriam-Webster and Cambridge list it as a second meaning, and Dictionary.com notes that the sandwich cookie is sometimes called a macaroon. Merriam-Webster's guide to mispronounced words sums it up: "you can call a macaron a 'macaroon,' and your dictionary has got your back." The Stanford linguist Dan Jurafsky draws a sharper line: in 2011 he wrote in Slate that in the US, macaron means only the sandwich cookie and macaroon the coconut one.

So if the menu says macaron, say mak-uh-RON or mah-kuh-ROHN, and save mak-uh-ROON for macaroon. None of these dictionaries pairs the spelling macaron with a ROON ending.

Why is macaron pronounced differently from macaroon?

Because English borrowed the same French word twice, about 380 years apart.

• In the early 1600s, French macaron became English macaroon. Merriam-Webster dates the first known use to about 1611. From the 15th to the 17th century, Etymonline explains, English regularly turned French nouns ending in a stressed -on into -oon, and Jurafsky adds balloon, cartoon and platoon. Back then, both words meant a simple almond cookie.
• In the 1990s, English borrowed macaron again, for the Paris sandwich cookie. Merriam-Webster's first known use is 1993. This time the French spelling stayed, and the pronunciation follows its single O.

In between, the cookies drifted apart: American macaroons went coconut in the late 1800s, and Paris bakers began joining two macarons with a filling.

Merriam-Webster and American Heritage trace both words, and macaroni, to an Italian dialect word, maccarone, for filled pasta or a dumpling (standard Italian maccherone).

How to say macaron step by step

1. Start with "mak", like Mac, with the A of cat. Merriam-Webster starts with "mah", as in father.
2. Add a quick, weak "uh": mak-uh. Cambridge marks it as optional in British English.
3. Stress the last syllable: RON, rhyming with Ron. Keep the vowel open; don't round your lips into "roon".
4. For the French version, say "mah-kah", make the R at the back of your throat, and end on a nasal "aw": air through your nose, and no N.

The slip to avoid is rounding RON into ROON, which turns macaron into macaroon. French speakers need the opposite: the English forms in the table end with a real N.

Practice in a sentence

• Could I get a box of six macarons, please?
• A macaron is a sandwich cookie; a macaroon is the coconut one.
• Pistachio, raspberry, salted caramel: I'll take one of each macaron.

Then try words with the same French ending. American pronunciations, from the Cambridge Dictionary:

Etymonline calls saloon an English variant of salon.

For more French food words, see how to pronounce croissant and charcuterie. For another dessert, see caramel, or browse our list of 45 commonly mispronounced words.

What is a macaron?

In Merriam-Webster's definition, a macaron is a light sandwich cookie: two rounded shells of egg whites, sugar and almond flour around a filling such as ganache, buttercream or jam. Jurafsky writes that two Paris bakers, Claude Gerbet and Pierre Desfontaines, both claimed this macaron parisien as their invention, and that Ladurée, the tea salon owned by Desfontaines's cousin, made it popular. A macaroon is a dense, chewy mound, most often of shredded coconut. In the US, it's a Passover classic, because it contains no flour.

Sources

• Merriam-Webster — macaron, macaroon and macaroni, pronunciations, etymology and first known use; More commonly mispronounced words
• Cambridge Dictionary — macaron, macaroon and macron; practice words balloon, cartoon, saloon, salon, macaroni
• Oxford Learner's Dictionaries — macaron and macaroon
• Dictionary.com — macaron and macaroon, with the usage note on the two cookies; American Heritage Dictionary — macaron and macaroon; Collins — macaron and macaroon
• Wiktionary — macaron (English and French) and macaroon; Wikipedia — Emmanuel Macron
• Etymonline — macaroon and saloon (archived copies)
• Slate — Macarons, macaroons, macaroni: the curious history, Dan Jurafsky, November 2011; Stanford University — Dan Jurafsky, Professor of Linguistics