How to pronounce waxed in American English

IPA /wækst/ Syllables 1 · wakst Stress 1st syllable

WAKST

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Americans pronounce waxed as WAKST (/wækst/). You'll hear it in sentences like "The surfboard was waxed to provide traction".

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "waxed".

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

w/w/

Round your lips into a tight circle. Lift the back of your tongue toward the soft palate and add voice.

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.

k/k/

Raise the back of your tongue to touch the soft palate (velum). Stop the air, then release.

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 "waxed" in the wild.

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

"The surfboard was waxed to provide traction."

dhuh SURF·bord wuhz WAKST tuh pruh·VAHYD TRAK·shuhn

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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