"Caught" is a terrible word to use for any examples here. The parent's IPA is handy, but betrays the fact that they actually distinguish between cot and caught,

"Caught" is a terrible word to use for any examples here. The parent's IPA is handy, but betrays the fact that they actually distinguish between cot and caught, something that by this point is pretty much a regionalism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_low_back_vowels#Cot.E2.80.93caught_merger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_Englis... EDIT: I may have a slight bias as a "General American" user, but I just noticed the parent actually also includes a length suprasegmental modifier, which probably means they're a Received Pronunciation English speaker, or copy-pasted the IPA from somewhere :-D. At any rate, my point that "it sounds like the vowel in 'caught' is pretty ambiguous" still stands.