How to pronounce death in American English

IPA /dɛθ/ Syllables 1 · dehth Stress 1st syllable

DEHTH

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Americans pronounce death as DEHTH (/dɛθ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The myth of the moth caused a breathless death" or "The sudden death rule means the next score wins" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "death".

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

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.

eh/ɛ/

Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly toward the roof.

th/θ/

Place the very tip of your tongue slightly between your teeth. Blow air gently around it without voicing.

In real conversation

Hear "death" in the wild.

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

"The myth of the moth caused a breathless death."

dhuh MIHTH uhv dhuh MAHTH KAHZD uh BREHTH·luhs DEHTH

"The sudden death rule means the next score wins."

dhuh SUH·duhn DEHTH ROOL meenz dhuh NEHKST SKOR WIHNZ

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Questions

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