How to pronounce west in American English

IPA /wɛst/ Syllables 1 · wehst Stress 1st syllable

WEHST

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Americans pronounce west as WEHST (/wɛst/). You'll hear it in sentences like "We drove west to view the valley" or "The wild west was wide and well known" — more examples below.

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Sound by sound

Every sound in "west".

1 syllable, 4 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.

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.

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 "west" in the wild.

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

"Her address is seventeen-eighty West Street."

her A·drehs ihz seh·vuhn·TEEN AY·dee WEHST STREET

"The vet walked west under the green vine."

dhuh VEHT WAHKT WEHST UHN·der dhuh GREEN VAHYN

"The wild west was wide and well known."

dhuh WAHYLD WEHST wuhz WAHYD and wehl NOHN

"We drove west to view the valley."

wee DROHV WEHST tuh VYOO dhuh VA·lee

"The wet vet wore a sweet vest west of here."

dhuh WEHT VEHT WOR uh SWEET VEHST WEHST uhv HEER

"Would you like to view the vines from the west window?"

wuud yoo LAHYK tuh VYOO dhuh VAHYNZ fruhm dhuh WEHST WIHN·doh

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Questions

Questions people ask about this.

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