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Vowel Sounds Word Filter: American English

American English has 18 vowel sounds: 13 single vowels (including the two r-coloured vowels /ɝ/ and /ɚ/) and 5 double vowels (diphthongs). Tap any sound below and only the words containing that sound will remain.

More about American English vowels

Each word is tagged with every vowel sound it contains, so a word like window appears under both /ɪ/ and /oʊ/.

American English has no /ɪə/, /eə/ or /ʊə/: because Americans pronounce the letter r, words like near, hair and tour simply use /ɪ/, /ɛ/ and /ʊ/ followed by /r/. Also, many American speakers merge /ɔ/ into /ɑ/, so caught and cot sound the same for them.

The phoneme list also includes /i/, the so-called happY vowel, used in modern dictionaries for the unstressed final sound in words like happy, coffee and city. It sits between /iː/ and /ɪ/ in quality and is shorter than both.

See our UK Phoneme filter and our handy US Minimal Pairs Filter.

 
Single vowels
Double vowels

🔊 Tap any word to hear its pronunciation.

angry taxi jacket plastic afternoon actor family apple camera happen ask bag bath black cat catch dance half hand laugh man map plan stand army body coffee sorry pocket October doctor dollar father modern holiday bottle chocolate garden problem box car clock hard heart hot job large park shop start stop watch Friday idea island quiet buy child drive five high life light night smile time try white why flower shower mountain brown cloud crowd down house loud mouth now out proud round sound town forty story morning office daughter water August autumn ball born bought caught dog door draw four law more saw short small thought walk warm airport many ready tennis yellow yesterday letter never weather breakfast seven bear bed bread chair dress egg friend hair head pen red share square when where baby paper station table cake change day eight game great late name place play rain train Thursday dirty early journey person bird burn church first girl heard hurt learn nurse shirt third turn word work world happy remember mistake busy city fifty pretty believe enjoy window zero sister winter cinema kitchen listen beer big build clear ear fish gym here milk minute near ship sit six spring village women year easy evening teacher pizza season cheese dream eat green key meat please see sheep speak team tree week noisy toilet boil boy choice coin join noise oil point voice hotel only moment open sofa boat both coat cold grow home hope know phone photo road show snow banana tomorrow arrive tonight about allow again potato today machine police avoid computer balloon football cookie jury during tourist butcher sugar cushion Europe woman book could foot full good look pull push put sure tour wood would umbrella upstairs Monday country funny hungry money brother color mother summer husband uncle blood bus cup jump love lunch month run sun young Tuesday movie music noodle student blue food fruit group juice June moon new school shoe soup spoon through two who
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