How to pronounce close in American English

IPA /kloʊz/ Syllables 1 · klohz Stress 1st syllable

KLOHZ

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Americans pronounce close as KLOHZ (/kloʊz/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Close the door" or "What time does the store close?" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "close".

1 syllable, 4 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

k/k/

Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.

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.

oh/oʊ/

Start with your mouth slightly open, then close your jaw slightly as your lips round. Shift your tongue back slightly, then stretch the back up.

z/z/

Same position as S, but add vocal cord vibration. Feel the buzz.

In real conversation

Hear "close" in the wild.

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

"Close the door."

KLOHZ dhuh DOR

"Could you close the curtain, please?"

kuud yuh KLOHZ dhuh KUR·tuhn PLEEZ

"I need to close the back window."

ahy NEED tuh KLOHZ dhuh BAK WIHN·doh

"It must be getting close to noon."

iht muhst bee GEH·duhng KLOHS tuh NOON

"Please close the windows to freeze the noise."

PLEEZ KLOHZ dhuh WIHN·dohz tuh FREEZ dhuh NOYZ

"Public opinion polls suggest a close race between the candidates."

PUH·bluhk uh·PIHN·yuhn POHLZ suhg·JEHST uh KLOHS RAYS buh·TWEEN dhuh KAN·duh·dayts

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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