One syllable: Bruise.
brooz
/bɹuz/
Bruise is pronounced brooz (/bɹuz/). It has one syllable (Bruise), with the stress on "Bruise". Bruise is a noun referring to a discoloration of the skin caused by injury, usually non-visible damage to underlying tissue. It also denotes pain or swelling accompanying such an injury. In everyday use, it implies a minor or incidental injury rather than a severe wound, and can appear in metaphorical phrases like “worse for wear.”.
nounBruise is a noun referring to a discoloration of the skin caused by injury, usually non-visible damage to underlying tissue. It also denotes pain or swelling accompanying such an injury. In everyday use, it implies a minor or incidental injury rather than a severe wound, and can appear in metaphorical phrases like “worse for wear.”
How to Pronounce Bruise
"She got a bruise on her leg after stubbing the chair."
"The bruise faded after a week and left a greenish-yellow mark."
"Don’t pick at the bruise; let it heal naturally."
Bruise is pronounced /bruːz/ (US/UK/AU). The initial consonant is a voiced bilabial stop (b), followed by a long tense vowel /uː/ as in 'food', and it ends with the voiced alveolar fricative /z/. Keep the lips rounded for the /uː/ and finish with a crisp /z/. In connected speech, pace may reduce slightly, but the vowel should stay long enough to distinguish from /brɪz/ ('brize' is uncommon).
Common mistakes include shortening the /uː/ to a short /u/ as in 'book' and voicing misarticulations like ending with /s/ instead of /z/. Some learners might devoice the final consonant or create an awkward /bruʒ/ blend. To correct: keep the vowel long, ensure the final is a voiced /z/ by vibrating the vocal cords, and finish with a light jaw closure rather than a hissy or sibilant stop. Practice with minimal pairs to reinforce the contrast with /bruːz/ vs /brus/.
Across accents, the core /bruːz/ remains, but rhoticity and vowel quality matter. US and AU accents typically maintain a full /uː/ vowel with clear/voiced /z/. UK tends to be similar, but some speakers may slightly reduce vowel length in rapid speech. All three share the rhotic-free or rhotic rhymes depending on regional dialects, yet the final /z/ is usually sonorant. The main differences lie in vowel quality and preceding consonant linking in connected speech, not in the basic phoneme set.
The difficulty centers on sustaining the long /uː/ vowel and producing a voiced /z/ without a preceding voiceless hiss. Some learners tend to shorten the vowel or turn /z/ into /s/ or /ʒ/. Mastery requires precise voicing and a relaxed, rounded mouth posture for the /uː/, with controlled airflow for a clean /z/. In noisy contexts, listeners may confuse /bruːz/ with /bruz/ or /brɔːz/ if the vowel deviates.
Yes. 'Bruise' is /bruːz/ with a long /uː/ vowel and a final /z/. 'Bruised' adds a /d/ suffix, producing /bruːzd/. The /d/ is voiced and often linked to the /z/ in rapid speech, giving a subtle /bruːz d/ or /bruːzd/ sequence. The primary vowel remains the same, but the ending stops can blur slightly in fast speech. In careful speech, keep /z/ before the /d/ clearly separated.
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US: clear /uː/ with a stable lips rounding and a prominent voiced /z/. UK: maintain the same /uː/ but may see slight vowel narrowing; AU: tends to be similar to US with strong final /z/ in careful speech. In all, the key is sustained lip rounding for /uː/ and continuous voicing for /z/. Use IPA reference /bruːz/ and practice linking to following sounds with minimal changes to vowel length.
Bruise enters English via the Old French bruise, from bruire (to crush, crush, press) and the Latin brusia, related to briser meaning to break. The word first appears in Middle English as bruise or bruse with senses tied to swelling and discoloration following injury. Its core semantic trajectory centers on a physical injury without necessarily breaking the skin, distinguishing it from wounds or cuts. By the 16th–17th centuries, bruise commonly described visible marks on the skin caused by blunt force. The term broadened slightly to include figurative usage, such as “a bruise to one’s pride” in later periods, though the medical sense remains dominant in contemporary usage. Across varieties of English, spelling aligns closely with the modern form bruise, and pronunciation has settled into /bruːz/. The word’s evolution mirrors a broader medical lexicon where non-penetrating injuries are categorized by surface manifestations (color changes, tenderness) rather than depth of tissue damage. First known use attested in English texts around the 14th or 15th century, aligning with increasing literate record-keeping of injuries and their visible signs in daily life and sports.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Bruise" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "Bruise" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "Bruise"
-ose sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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