One syllable: grazed.
grayzd
/ɡɹeɪzd/
grazed is pronounced grayzd (/ɡɹeɪzd/). It has one syllable (grazed), with the stress on "grazed". Grazed is the past tense of graze, meaning to have touched or fed upon the surface lightly, often by animals feeding on grass, or by something brushing against a surface. In broader use, it describes a light, superficial contact or injury. The term can also imply a light, incidental wear or nourishment, with an emphasis on a gentle, sliding interaction rather than deep impact.
Grazed is the past tense of graze, meaning to have touched or fed upon the surface lightly, often by animals feeding on grass, or by something brushing against a surface. In broader use, it describes a light, superficial contact or injury. The term can also imply a light, incidental wear or nourishment, with an emphasis on a gentle, sliding interaction rather than deep impact.
- 2-3 key phonetic challenges: ensuring the /eɪ/ remains a true diphthong and not a monophthong; maintaining voicing of /z/ before /d/ without creating a stop; linking the /z/ and /d/ to avoid a clipped end. - Corrections: • Practice with minimal pairs that contrast /eɪ/ vs /ɛ/ (grazed vs grated) to lock the vowel quality. • Do a voicing check: place a finger at your throat while saying grazed to feel the vibration on /z/ and /d/. If you don’t feel it, you’re devoicing the /z/. • Use connected speech drills: say 'the grazed man' slowly, then accelerate while keeping the final /zd/ connected. - You’ll hear the difference when you maintain a steady air stream through /z/ and a quick release to /d/; your speech will sound more natural and confident.
"The cattle grazed in the meadow from dawn until dusk."
"A goat grazed the hillside, nibbling every green shoot it could reach."
"Her knee grazed the doorframe as she hurried through the crowded hallway."
Grazed is pronounced /ɡreɪzd/. The initial /ɡ/ is a hard g as in go, the vowel is the long /eɪ/ as in wait, followed by a voiced /z/ that blends into the final /d/. The stress falls on the single syllable word naturally. Tip: keep the /z/ and /d/ touching quickly to avoid isolating the final consonant; finish with a crisp /d/ release.
Two common errors are converting the /z/ to a /s/ before /d/ (sounding like /ɡreɪzd/ with a hiss) and mispronouncing the /eɪ/ as a short /e/ sound (like /ɡrɛzd/). To correct: maintain the long /eɪ/ diphthong and ensure the /z/ is voiced, not devoiced, so your final /zd/ forms a smooth affricate-like closing. Practice by saying ‘grayed’ slowly, then blend to the single word, checking the voice in your larynx.
In US/UK/AU, the core /ɡreɪzd/ remains similar. The main differences are vowel quality and final consonant release. US and AU often have a slightly terser /ɪ/ in connected speech? Not here—the diphthong remains clear /eɪ/. UK speakers may have a tighter /eɪ/ and a marginally more forward tongue position; AUS tends to be slightly broader with a softening of the final /d/ in casual speech. All share rhoticity variations that don’t alter the grazed pronunciation drastically.
The challenge is keeping the final affricate /z/ + /d/ together without an audible boundary. You must voice the /z/ and transition quickly into /d/, avoiding an extra pause. The /eɪ/ diphthong requires a smooth glide from /e/ to /ɪ/ while blending with the following /z/. Beginners often devoice the /z/ or shorten /eɪ/; focus on a continuous airflow and precise tongue posture to avoid a clipped or mis-timed ending.
The word’s key feature is the /eɪ/ diphthong followed directly by a voiced /z/ and the /d/ release, all within a single syllable. Your mouth must transition quickly from the open-mid front vowel position to a buzzing /z/ without a laryngeal pause. Awareness of the voiced /z/ preceding the /d/ helps in achieving a natural, flowing pronunciation, especially in rapid speech or when linked in phrases like 'grazed knee' where connective speech can blur the ending if not careful.
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- US: pronounces /ɡreɪzd/ with a strong, clear diphthong and fully voiced /z/ before a crisp /d/. Avoid flapping the final /d/ in careful speech; keep it as a true /d/ when emphasized. - UK: may have a slightly crisper /eɪ/ quality, with a marginally lighter /z/; ensure post-alveolar placement is precise to avoid a hissy /s/**. The rhoticity is less relevant for grazed since the word is not rhotic-affected unless in linked speech. - AU: tends to have a broader vowel, slightly longer diphthong, and the /d/ release can be softer. Maintain voicing in /z/; a near-identical articulation to US but with subtler vowel color changes. All share non-rhotic tendencies in careful speech but grazed remains naturally non-syllabic in most contexts.
Grazed comes from the verb graze, which traces to Old English grǣsan and the Proto-Germanic graisanan, with roots in the sense of scraping or rubbing lightly along a surface. The core idea was a gentle contact—whether animals feeding on grass or something brushing the skin. By Middle English, grazen or grazen appeared in contexts describing both grazing cattle and light surface contact. The word aligns with other Germanic terms that denote scraping or rubbing, reflecting an older semantic field of incidental contact rather than forceful impact. Over time, grazing broadened to include light injury or wear, and even agricultural contexts describing animals feeding in a field. The past tense grazed emerged as the regular -ed form of graze and entered common usage in producing simple narrative past tense, retaining the core sense of light, surface-level interaction. First known written attestations appear in agricultural and pastoral literature of medieval England, with evolving usage through Early Modern English as grazing became a common pastoral practice and a metaphor for minimal contact or consumption. In contemporary use, grazed covers a spectrum from ecological grazing (cattle or sheep grazing) to light contact injuries (a grazed knee) and even metaphorical uses (grazed resources). The word remains tightly linked to the imagery of light, superficial interaction rather than hard impact or deep penetration.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "grazed" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "grazed" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "grazed"
-sed sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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