How to pronounce waxed in American English
WAKST
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Americans pronounce waxed as WAKST (/wækst/).
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Why it sounds different
Why "waxed" sounds like WAKST.
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 WAKST.
In real conversation
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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.
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