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How to pronounce biscuit

Biscuit is pronounced BIS-kit in both American and British English. It has two syllables with the stress on the first, and the U is silent: cuit sounds like kit.

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  • 2 syllables
  • Stress on BIS
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

biscuit

Two syllables, stress on the first

noun · a small, flat, sweet baked food (UK); a small soft bread roll (US)

  1. BISbɪs (stressed)
  2. kitkɪt
  • US /ˈbɪs.kɪt/BIS-kit Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈbɪs.kɪt/BIS-kit Your device’s voice

IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.

Biscuit, sound by sound

Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.

USUK American and British English/ˈbɪs.kɪt/

  1. BISstressed

    • /b/as in bad
    • /ɪ/as in sit
    • /s/as in see

  2. kit

    • /k/as in cat
    • /ɪ/as in sit
    • /t/as in tea

Say biscuit yourself

Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes biscuit, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.

Tip. The second syllable is kit. The U is silent, so there is no W sound.

Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.

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biscuit

    Common biscuit pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say BIS-kit.

    • NotBIS-kwit

      Reading u as w, as in quit. The U is silent: BIS-kit.

    • Notbees-KWEE

      Using the French sound. In English the word ends in a clear T and the stress is on the first syllable.

    • Notbis-KIT

      Stressing the second syllable. Say BIS strongly and keep kit short.

    Biscuit in a sentence

    Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.

    • Would you like a biscuit with your tea?

    • In the US, a biscuit is soft and served with gravy.

    • The dog sat still and waited for a biscuit.

    Why is biscuit spelled with a u?

    The U is there because English copied the French spelling. English speakers once wrote the word bisket, which matches how it sounds. The older French form was bescuit, from words meaning cooked twice.

    The spelling changed, but the sound did not. So cuit is not said as in French. It is just kit, the same as the end of circuit.

    The word also means different things. In the UK a biscuit is sweet and crisp, what Americans call a cookie. In the US it is a soft bread roll, often eaten at breakfast. The pronunciation is the same in both places.

    Words that sound like biscuit

    Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.

    More words with silent letters

    All 170 difficult words

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