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How to pronounce debt

Debt is pronounced DET, to rhyme with bet and get. It is one syllable and the B is silent, in both American and British English.

Say it yourself
  • 1 syllable
  • Stress on DET
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

debt

One syllable

noun · money that you owe

  1. DETdet (stressed)
  • US /det/DET Recorded voice
  • UK /det/DET Your device’s voice

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

Debt, sound by sound

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

USUK American and British English/det/

  1. DETstressed

    • /d/as in did
    • /e/as in bed
    • /t/as in tea

Say debt yourself

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

Tip. The B is silent. Say DET, to rhyme with bet.

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

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debt

    Common debt pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say DET.

    • NotDEBT

      Saying the b before the t. Your lips should not close at all: the b is silent.

    • NotDEPT

      Turning the b into a p. There is no sound between the e and the t: DET.

    • NotDEB-ter

      Saying the b in debtor. It stays silent there too: DET-er.

    Debt 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.

    • They paid off their debt in five years.

    • Student debt is a big worry for many families.

    • I'm in your debt for helping me move.

    Why is the b in debt silent?

    English took the word from French in the Middle Ages. It was spelled dette, with no b, and said much as it is today.

    Later, scholars added a b to the spelling to show that the word came from the Latin debitum. Nobody started saying it. The same thing happened to doubt, from the Latin dubitare, and receipt picked up a silent p in a similar way.

    The b stays silent in debtor: DET-er. But debit, which comes from the same Latin word, does say its b: DEB-it. In debt, the b is a history note, not a sound.

    Words that sound like debt

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

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