How to pronounce lost in American English

IPA /lɑst/ Syllables 1 · lahst Stress 1st syllable

LAHST

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Americans pronounce lost as LAHST (/lɑst/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The boss lost the cost of the lost cloth" or "I lost my wallet at the concert last fall" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "lost".

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

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.

ah/ɑ/

Relax your lips and drop your jaw significantly. The tongue tip lightly touches behind the bottom front teeth and the back part of the tongue presses down a little to create more dark space in the back of the mouth.

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 "lost" in the wild.

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

"Bring a cup of water to the cop who lost his cap."

BRIHNG uh KUHP uhv WAH·der tuh dhuh KAHP hoo LAHST hihz KAP

"He lost points for not showing his work on the math problems."

hee LAHST POYNTS fer NAHT SHOH·uhng hihz WURK ahn dhuh MATH PRAH·bluhmz

"I lost my wallet at the concert last fall."

ahy LAHST mahy WAH·luht uht dhuh KAHN·sert last FAHL

"The boss lost the cost of the lost cloth."

dhuh BAHS LAHST dhuh kahst uhv dhuh LAHST KLAHTH

"They lost the game but showed great sportsmanship."

dhay LAHST dhuh GAYM buht SHOHD GRAYT SPORTS·muhn·shihp

"She got lost walking through the long hall."

shee GAHT LAHST WAH·kuhng throo dhuh lahng HAHL

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Questions

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