How to pronounce hissed in American English

IPA /hɪst/ Syllables 1 · hihst Stress 1st syllable

HIHST

Start here

Americans pronounce hissed as HIHST (/hɪst/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Six snakes hissed across the soft grass".

Now you try.

Record yourself saying "hissed" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.

Ready when you are

Tap the mic to start

Preview your accent profile

Get your accent profile and 5-axes assessment.

Sounds

75%

Clarity

68%

Stress

78%

Intonation

65%

Fluency

62%

Overall assessment

Our AI coach listens to your recording and grades 5 dimensions of pronunciation — then tells you exactly what to fix next.

72% Noticeable accent

Unlock the full report in the app

Sound by sound

Every sound in "hissed".

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

h/h/

Push a stream of air from your throat through your open mouth. No tongue or lip contact.

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.

s/s/

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

t/t/

Touch the tip or front edge of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Keep your jaw relaxed. Stop the air, then release with a puff.

In real conversation

Hear "hissed" in the wild.

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

"Six snakes hissed across the soft grass."

SIHKS SNAYKS HIHST uh·KRAHS dhuh sahft GRAS

Find another

Looking for a different word or sentence?

Search the entire library

Press / anywhere to focus the search box.

Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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