b/b/
Press your lips together, add vocal cord vibration, then release.
How to pronounce blood in American English
BLUHD
Start here
Americans pronounce blood as BLUHD (/blʌd/). You'll hear it in sentences like "He donated blood to help those in need" or "The diagnosis was confirmed by a series of blood tests" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "blood".
1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
l/l/
Place the tip of your tongue against the alveolar ridge just behind your top front teeth, the same contact point as /t/, /d/, and /n/. The difference is what happens to the air: for /l/, you let it flow continuously around the <em>sides</em> of the tongue (that's why /l/ is called a lateral). Turn your voice on the whole time. Lips stay relaxed, no rounding or flaring. For the Dark L variant at the end of a syllable, also pull the back of the tongue up and back toward the soft palate.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
In real conversation
Hear "blood" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"He donated blood to help those in need."
hee DOH·nay·tuhd BLUHD tuh HEHLP dhohz ihn NEED
"The circulatory system transports blood and oxygen throughout the body."
dhuh SUR·kyuh·luh·tor·ee SIH·stuhm tran·SPORTS BLUHD and AHK·suh·juhn throo·OWT dhuh BAH·dee
"The nurse took my blood pressure and recorded my temperature."
dhuh NURS TUUK mahy BLUHD PREH·sher and ruh·KOR·duhd mahy TEHM·pruh·cher
"He monitors vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure."
hee MAH·nuh·terz VAHY·duhl SAHYNZ suhch uhz HART RAYT and BLUHD PREH·sher
"The diagnosis was confirmed by a series of blood tests."
dhuh dahy·uhg·NOH·suhs wuhz kuhn·FURMD bahy uh SEER·eez uhv BLUHD TEHSTS
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Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "blood", the "d" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
blood→BLUHD
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
Is the American pronunciation of "blood" different from British English?
American English uses different vowel shapes, a relaxed retroflex R, and connected-speech tricks like flap-T and glottal-stop T that British Received Pronunciation generally avoids. The respell "BLUHD" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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