How to pronounce mass in American English

IPA /mæs/ Syllables 1 · mas Stress 1st syllable

MAS

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Americans pronounce mass as MAS (/mæs/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Lifting weights builds muscle mass and bone density" or "Dark matter makes up a large portion of the universe's mass" — more examples below.

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Sounds

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Clarity

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Stress

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Intonation

65%

Fluency

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "mass".

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

m/m/

Press your lips together. Air flows through your nose. Vocal cords vibrate.

a/æ/

Drop the jaw noticeably. Keep the body of the tongue low and forward, and don't let the back of the tongue raise toward the soft palate. Pull the lip corners back slightly, almost a starting smile.

s/s/

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

In real conversation

Hear "mass" in the wild.

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

"Dark matter makes up a large portion of the universe's mass."

DARK MA·der MAYKS UHP uh LARJ POR·shuhn uhv dhuh YOO·nuh·vur·suhz MAS

"Lifting weights builds muscle mass and bone density."

LIHF·tuhng WAYTS BIHLDZ MUH·suhl MAS and BOHN DEHN·suh·tee

"She balanced the chemical equation to show the conservation of mass."

shee BA·luhnst dhuh KEH·muh·kuhl ih·KWAY·zhuhn tuh SHOH dhuh kahn·ser·VAY·shuhn uhv MAS

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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