How to Use IPA in Microsoft Word

By Charlotte Mission

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a representation of the phonetic sounds of language. The IPA was created in 1888 by the International Phonetic Association. It is standardized to all languages and provides linguists, students, speech therapists and actors with the correct pronunciation of words in any language. Microsoft Word provides some IPA-compatible fonts out-of-the-box, but you can also download IPA-compatible fonts from websites, such as the website for the Summer Institute of Linguistics, also known as SIL International.

Step 1

Open Microsoft Word. Select an IPA-compatible font, such as Lucida Sans Unicode or Arial Unicode MS from the font pull-down menu.

Step 2

Go to the "Insert" tab. Click the "Symbol" button and select "More Symbols."

Step 3

Select "IPA Extensions" from the Subset drop-down menu. Choose the IPA symbol you want and click "Insert" to place the symbol in the document.

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