How to pronounce bow in American English

IPA /baʊ/ Syllables 1 · bow Stress 1st syllable

BOW

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Americans pronounce bow as BOW (/baʊ/).

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Why it sounds different

Why "bow" sounds like BOW.

Between "" and "", a brief "" glide bridges the two vowels for smooth flow. This is called the Vowel-to-Vowel Linking, how Americans glue words together so they sound like one phrase. It comes out as BOW.

In real conversation

Hear "bow" in the wild.

Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.

"She took a bow as the curtain fell at the end of the play."

shee TUUK uh BOW uhz dhuh KUR·tuhn FEHL uht dhee EHND uhv dhuh PLAY

Questions

Questions people ask about this.

Is the American pronunciation of "bow" 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 "BOW" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.