How to pronounce cease in American English

IPA /sis/ Syllables 1 · sees Stress 1st syllable

SEES

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Americans pronounce cease as SEES (/sis/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The cease and desist letter ordered them to stop the activity".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "cease".

1 syllable, 3 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

ee/i/

Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.

s/s/

Place your tongue tip near the roof of your mouth behind your top teeth. Push air through the narrow gap. No voicing.

In real conversation

Hear "cease" in the wild.

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"The cease and desist letter ordered them to stop the activity."

dhuh SEES and duh·ZIHST LEH·der OR·derd dhuhm tuh STAHP dhee uhk·TIH·vuh·tee

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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