How to pronounce king in American English

IPA /kɪŋ/ Syllables 1 · kihng Stress 1st syllable

KIHNG

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Americans pronounce king as KIHNG (/kɪŋ/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The King is strong" or "The king was singing a long song" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "king".

1 syllable, 3 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.

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.

ng/ŋ/

Lift the back of your tongue to the soft palate. Lower your soft palate to let air flow through your nose.

In real conversation

Hear "king" in the wild.

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

"According to the contract, cash is king."

uh·KOR·duhng tuh dhuh KAHN·trakt KASH ihz KIHNG

"The king and queen are visiting the town."

dhuh KIHNG and KWEEN er VIH·zuh·tuhng dhuh TOWN

"The King is strong."

dhuh KIHNG ihz STRAHNG

"The lion is often called the king of the jungle."

dhuh LAHY·uhn ihz AH·fuhn KAHLD dhuh KIHNG uhv dhuh JUHNG·guhl

"The king was singing a long song."

dhuh KIHNG wuhz SIHNG·uhng uh lahng SAHNG

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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