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/).

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Why it sounds different

Why "missed" sounds like MIHST.

The "" at the end of "" is dropped before the consonant starting "" — the surrounding consonants flow directly together — common in flowing natural speech; in careful or formal speech, the sound is often kept. This is called the Silent T/D Across Words, a connected-speech trick that makes phrases flow. It comes out as MIHST.

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

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.