How to pronounce stress in American English

IPA /strɛs/ Syllables 1 · strehs Stress 1st syllable

STREHS

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Americans pronounce stress as STREHS (/strɛs/). You'll hear it in sentences like "He has been dealing with a lot of stress at work lately" or "She practices breathing exercises every evening to reduce stress and anxiety" — more examples below.

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Sounds

75%

Clarity

68%

Stress

78%

Intonation

65%

Fluency

62%

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "stress".

1 syllable, 5 sounds. Explore each sound's mouth shape and how it's made.

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.

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.

eh/ɛ/

Drop your jaw moderately. Touch the tongue tip behind the bottom front teeth and lift the mid-front part slightly 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.

In real conversation

Hear "stress" in the wild.

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

"He has been dealing with a lot of stress at work lately."

hee huhz bihn DEE·luhng wihth uh LAHT uhv STREHS uht WURK LAYT·lee

"She practices breathing exercises every evening to reduce stress and anxiety."

shee PRAK·tuh·suhz BREE·dhuhng EHK·ser·sahy·zuhz EHV·ree EEV·nuhng tuh ruh·DOOS STREHS uhnd ang·ZAHY·uh·tee

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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