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How to pronounce wrist

Wrist is pronounced RIST, with one syllable. The w is silent, so it starts with an R and rhymes with fist and twist. American and British English say it the same way.

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

wrist

One syllable

noun · the joint between your hand and your arm

  1. RISTrɪst (stressed)
  • US /rɪst/RIST Recorded voice
  • UK /rɪst/RIST Your device’s voice

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

Wrist, sound by sound

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

USUK American and British English/rɪst/

  1. RISTstressed

    • /r/as in red
    • /ɪ/as in sit
    • /s/as in see
    • /t/as in tea

Say wrist yourself

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

Tip. The w is silent. Start with R: RIST, like list with an R.

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

Say it

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wrist

    Common wrist pronunciation mistakes

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

    • Notwuh-RIST

      Saying the w. Start the word with your usual English R.

    • NotREEST

      Making the i long. It is the short i of sit.

    • NotRIS

      Leaving off the t. The last sound is a quick, quiet t.

    Wrist 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.

    • She wears a silver watch on her wrist.

    • He hurt his wrist playing tennis.

    • The nurse took my wrist to check my pulse.

    Is the w in wrist silent?

    Yes. The w is silent, and the word starts with an r. It is one of many wr- words: write, wrong, wrap, wrinkle and wrestle. Old English said the w before r, and it dropped out of speech in the 1500s and 1600s while the spelling stayed.

    The word comes from Old English wrist and is related to writhe, to twist. That fits, because your wrist is the part of your arm that twists.

    The ending is a tight cluster: s, then t. Do not add a vowel between them. Say RIST, stop on the t, and keep it short.

    Words that sound like wrist

    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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