2 syllables: miss, ing. Stress on miss.
MIS-ing
/ˈmɪsɪŋ/
missing is pronounced MIS-ing (/ˈmɪsɪŋ/). It has two syllables (miss-ing), with the stress on "miss". Missing is an adjective meaning not present or not found, and a verb form of miss, indicating the act of failing to encounter or locate something. It is commonly used to describe something absent, lost, or lacking, or to indicate the act of failing to attend or be aware. In pronunciation, it is a one-syllable stem with a voiced-velar nasal onset followed by a short, lax vowel and a final velar nasal.
Missing is an adjective meaning not present or not found, and a verb form of miss, indicating the act of failing to encounter or locate something. It is commonly used to describe something absent, lost, or lacking, or to indicate the act of failing to attend or be aware. In pronunciation, it is a one-syllable stem with a voiced-velar nasal onset followed by a short, lax vowel and a final velar nasal.
"The keys are missing from the kitchen counter."
"She’s missing her old friends since moving away."
"A missing page disrupted the flow of the report."
You say MIS-ing with the stress on the first syllable: /ˈmɪsɪŋ/. The initial consonant is the regular /m/, the vowel is a short 'i' as in sit, the second syllable is a reduced /ɪŋ/. In fluent speech you’ll hear /ˈmɪsɪŋ/ with a light, nasal end. Practicing slowly: /m/ + /ɪ/ + /s/ + /ɪŋ/; then run it into a sentence like 'The keys are missing again.' IPA: /ˈmɪsɪŋ/.
Common errors: (1) Over-syllabicating or pronouncing a second syllable fully, as 'mis-sing' (/ˈmɪsɪŋ/ should be one syllable). (2) Slurring the /s/ into the following /ɪ/ or turning it into a /z/ in casual speech. (3) A trailing vowel or misplacing the tongue for the final /ŋ/. Correction: practice the sequence /m/ + /ɪ/ + /s/ immediately followed by the velar nasal /ŋ/ with the tongue back against the soft palate; keep /ɪ/ brief and never insert a vowel between /s/ and /ŋ/.
US/UK/AU pronunciations share /ˈmɪsɪŋ/ as the standard, with subtle differences: US tends to a slightly r-less, tighter front vowel quality; UK may have a marginally more centralized or rounded /ɪ/ depending on regional accents; AU generally mirrors US in rhoticity and vowel height, but some speakers favor a slightly laxer /ɪ/ and a crisper final /ŋ/. In all, the stress stays on the first syllable, with the final /ŋ/ dark and velar. IPA references: US /ˈmɪsɪŋ/, UK /ˈmɪsɪŋ/, AU /ˈmɪsɪŋ/.
The challenge lies in the rapid sequence /m/ + /ɪ/ + /s/ immediately feeding into the velar nasal /ŋ/, with a short, lax vowel that should stay light rather than extended. The cluster requires precise tongue placement: lips rounded for the /m/ moment, then a quick alveolar /s/ with edge-tooth contact before pulling the tongue back for /ŋ/. In fast speech, the vowel can be reduced or the /ɪ/ blurred; keep the switch clean by practicing the timing of articulations with a metronome at 60–90 BPM.
Missing hinges on the smooth transition from a high-front short vowel to a back-velar nasal sound. The /s/ must not be confused with a /z/ in voiced contexts (e.g., 'miss-ing' vs. 'mis-sing' in some dialects). Ensure the /ɪ/ is crisp and short rather than prolonged, and that the final /ŋ/ doesn’t become an /n/ or /ŋk/. Practicing the word in isolation and in phrases helps stabilize the sequence. IPA: /ˈmɪsɪŋ/.
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Missing derives from the verb miss, itself from Old English missian, a late Old English formation from mis- ‘wrongly’ and -sian, related to Latin mendire via Germanic roots. The sense of not being present or not locating something evolved in Middle English as the word miss began to mean to fail to strike or reach, and to fail to perceive or understand. By Early Modern English, miss had expanded to cover absence or failure to attend, while the participial adjective missing developed to describe objects or people not present, not found, or not included. The word miss and its cognates appeared across Germanic languages with similar forms, reflecting the sense of error, failure, or absence. In contemporary usage, missing commonly collocates with people (missing person), objects (missing item), and information (missing data), while retaining a sense of unresolved absence or failure to be located or accounted for. First known written attestations appear in Middle English medical and inventory contexts, with broader semantic extension in the 16th–18th centuries through literature and reportage.
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Words that rhyme with "missing"
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