ih/ɪ/
Drop your jaw slightly with relaxed lips. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and arch the top-front toward the roof.
How to pronounce exceeded in American English
ihk·SEE·duhd
Start here
Americans pronounce exceeded as ihk-SEE-duhd (/ɪkˈsidəd/). In "exceeded", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. This is called the Flap T, a hallmark of natural-sounding American speech. So instead of ihk·SEE·tuht, you get ihk·SEE·duhd. Stress falls on the second syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The results of the experiment exceeded our initial expectations" or "Your accomplishments this quarter exceeded our initial benchmarks" — more examples below.
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Sound by sound
Every sound in "exceeded".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then 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.
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.
d/d/
FlapQuickly bounce the front of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Same as Flap T — a quick tap without stopping airflow.
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 "exceeded" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"The results of the experiment exceeded our initial expectations."
dhuh ruh·ZUHLTS uhv dhee ihk·SPEH·ruh·muhnt ihk·SEE·duhd owr ih·NIH·shuhl ehk·spehk·TAY·shuhnz
"Your accomplishments this quarter exceeded our initial benchmarks."
yor uh·KAHM·pluhsh·muhnts dhihs KWOR·ter ihk·SEE·duhd ar ih·NIH·shuhl BEHNCH·marks
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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
Saying a hard "T" in the middle.
In "exceeded", the "t" between vowels sounds like a quick "d" — the tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth. /t/ or /d/ becomes a quick tap [ɾ] — sounds like a soft D. The tongue briefly taps the ridge behind the upper teeth.
ihk-SEE-tuht→ihk·SEE·duhd
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the second syllable, not the others. Stretch SEE — keep everything else short and quick.
IHK·see·DUHD→ihk·SEE·duhd
03
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the second syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
ihk·SEE·DUHD→ihk·SEE·duhd
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "exceeded" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the second syllable — say "SEE" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "ihk-SEE-duhd" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why doesn't the T sound like a T in "exceeded"?
In American English, when /t/ sits between two vowels with the second one unstressed, it turns into a quick D-like flap. So "exceeded" sounds closer to "ihk-SEE-duhd" than to a crisp-T pronunciation. This is the flap-T rule, one of the most distinctive sounds of casual American speech.
Why does the third syllable in "exceeded" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "ihk-SEE-duhd" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "exceeded" 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 "ihk-SEE-duhd" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
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