How to pronounce missed in American English

IPA /mɪst/ Syllables 1 · mihst Stress 1st syllable

MIHST

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Americans pronounce missed as MIHST (/mɪst/). You'll hear it in sentences like "Many members missed the Monday morning memo" or "She missed the bus and had to wait for the next one" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "missed".

1 syllable, 4 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.

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 "missed" in the wild.

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

"Because the flight was delayed, I missed my connection."

buh·KUHZ dhuh FLAHYT wuhz duh·LAYD ahy MIHST mahy kuh·NEHK·shuhn

"Many members missed the Monday morning memo."

MEH·nee MEHM·berz MIHST dhuh MUHN·day MOR·nuhng MEH·moh

"She missed the bus and had to wait for the next one."

shee MIHST dhuh BUHS and huhd tuh WAYT fer dhuh NEHKST wuhn

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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