r/r/
Curl or bunch your tongue without letting the tip touch the roof of your mouth. Brace the sides of your tongue against your upper back teeth, and round your lips slightly.
How to pronounce rapidly in American English
RA·puhd·lee
Start here
Americans pronounce rapidly as RA-puhd-lee (/ˈræpədli/). Stress falls on the first syllable — keep everything else short and quick. You'll hear it in sentences like "The renewable energy sector is growing rapidly" or "The epidemic spread rapidly through the population" — more examples below.
Now you try.
Record yourself saying "rapidly" and play it back. The mic stays on your device — nothing's uploaded.
Sound by sound
Every sound in "rapidly".
3 syllables, 7 sounds. Tap a syllable to jump to its row, then explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.
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.
p/p/
Press your lips together to stop the air, then release. No vocal cord vibration.
uh/ʌ/
Relax your lips, jaw, and tongue completely. Drop your jaw slightly and keep the tongue neutral.
d/d/
Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Add vocal cord vibration as you release.
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.
ee/i/
Pull the corners of your lips back slightly. Arch the middle-front of your tongue high toward the roof of the mouth.
In real conversation
Hear "rapidly" in the wild.
Click any sentence to see the full breakdown — every link, every reduction, every flap-T.
"Artificial intelligence algorithms are transforming multiple industries rapidly."
ar·tuh·FIH·shuhl ihn·TEH·luh·juhns AL·guh·rih·dhuhmz er trans·FOR·muhng MUHL·tuh·puhl IHN·duh·streez RA·puhd·lee
"The epidemic spread rapidly through the population."
dhee eh·puh·DEH·muhk SPREHD RA·puhd·lee throo dhuh pah·pyuh·LAY·shuhn
"The renewable energy sector is growing rapidly."
dhuh ruh·NOO·uh·buhl EH·ner·jee SEHK·ter ihz GROH·uhng RA·puhd·lee
"Robotics is advancing rapidly in healthcare and manufacturing sectors."
roh·BAH·duhks ihz uhd·VAN·suhng RA·puhd·lee ihn HEHLTH·kair and ma·nyoo·FAK·cher·uhng SEHK·terz
"The virus mutates rapidly, making it difficult to treat."
dhuh VAHY·ruhs MYOO·tayts RA·puhd·lee MAY·kuhng iht DIH·fuh·kuhlt tuh TREET
Find another
Looking for a different word or sentence?
Search the entire library
/
Press / anywhere to focus the search box.
Watch out
Common pronunciation mistakes in American English.
The textbook way isn't wrong — it's just not how anyone actually says it.
01
Releasing the final consonant with a puff of air.
In "rapidly", the "d" is not released — the articulators get into position but hold without the burst of air. Air stops but there's no release burst — the articulators hold position.
rapidly→RA·puhd·lee
02
Stressing the wrong syllable.
Stress falls on the first syllable, not the others. Stretch RA — keep everything else short and quick.
ra·PUHD·LEE→RA·puhd·lee
03
Pronouncing the unstressed syllable too fully.
Don't pronounce the first syllable too fully. The unstressed syllable reduces to a schwa — the lazy "uh" sound — in casual speech.
RA·PUHD·lee→RA·puhd·lee
Questions
Questions people ask about this.
How is "rapidly" stressed in American English?
Stress falls on the first syllable — say "RA" with a longer, fuller vowel and keep every other syllable short and quick. The respell "RA-puhd-lee" marks the stressed syllable in capitals so the rhythm is easy to read at a glance.
Why does the second syllable in "rapidly" reduce to "uh"?
Unstressed syllables in American English collapse toward a schwa — a lazy, neutral "uh" sound. The full vowel is what textbooks teach, but in actual American speech every unstressed vowel reduces. The respell "RA-puhd-lee" shows the reduced form so you can hear the casual rhythm directly.
Is the American pronunciation of "rapidly" 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 "RA-puhd-lee" reflects the casual American form; British dictionaries typically print a citation form with crisper consonants and different vowel choices.
Stop reading about "rapidly". Start saying it.
SayWaader is the AI pronunciation coach for American English. Practice 5 minutes a day. Get a 5-axes accent assessment. Sound like you live here.