One syllable: Raze.
rayz
/ɹeɪz/
Raze is pronounced rayz (/ɹeɪz/). It has one syllable (Raze), with the stress on "Raze". Raze is a verb meaning to completely destroy or demolish, leaving little or nothing standing. It conveys intentional, often rapid action aimed at erasing structures, defenses, or symbols. In everyday use, it can describe both physical destruction and metaphorical erasure of plans or regimes.
verbRaze is a verb meaning to completely destroy or demolish, leaving little or nothing standing. It conveys intentional, often rapid action aimed at erasing structures, defenses, or symbols. In everyday use, it can describe both physical destruction and metaphorical erasure of plans or regimes.
"The ancient city was razed to the ground after the siege."
"Builders razed the old warehouse to make way for a new apartment complex."
"The policy proposal was razed in the heated debate."
Pronounce it as /reɪz/ with a long a as in ‘cake.’ The mouth starts with a mid-to-high front tongue position, lips neutral, and ends with a voiced sibilant /z/. The main tip is a clean diphthong /eɪ/ followed by /z/. You’ll pronounce it in one syllable, with no extra vowel sound after /z/. Audio reference: Oxford/ Cambridge dictionaries provide clear native-speaker recordings for /reɪz/.
Two common errors are pronouncing it as /reɪzɪ/ adding an extra vowel, or turning it into /rɛz/ with a lowered vowel. To correct, keep the bite-sized /eɪ/ diphthong: start with mid-high tongue height, glide to high front position, and finish with a crisp /z/ without voicing changes. Avoid over-articulating the final consonant, which can blur the one-syllable rhythm.
In US/UK/AU, the /reɪz/ nucleus is similar, but rhotics and voicing subtly shift: US speakers may have slightly longer /eɪ/ and clearer /r/ coloring before the vowel in connected speech; UK tends toward a slightly tighter vowel, with less rhotic coloration in non-rhotic varieties; AU follows similar to UK but with a more centralized ending in casual speech. Overall, /reɪz/ remains a tense vowel followed by a voiced /z/ across accents.
The difficulty lies in the short, high-energy diphthong /eɪ/ and the voiceless-to-voiced transition from /eɪ/ to /z/. Learners may trip over the final /z/ in fast speech, sometimes producing /s/ or losing voicing. Focus on a clean glide from /eɪ/ to /z/, keeping the consonant voice on the final phoneme, and avoid inserting a separate schwa between /eɪ/ and /z/.
As a one-syllable verb, ‘raze’ is not typically stressed differently in inflections. In compounds like ‘razed-out’ or ‘razing’ the main stress remains on the root syllable: /reɪz/ with any suffix pronounced separately (e.g., /reɪzd/ for ‘razed’). The main phonetic challenge remains maintaining the long /eɪ/ and ensuring the /z/ remains voiced in connected speech rather than devoices in rapid contexts.
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Raze comes from Old French razer, from raier ‘to level, to scrape, rake off,’ which in turn derives from the Latin radialis? not directly; the more relevant lineage is from razier in French meaning ‘to plow, to shave off’, with the sense evolving in English to denote leveling ground. In Middle English, forms akin to razen appeared in the 14th century, tied to the act of destruction by leveling or wiping away. The modern sense of complete demolition emerged in the 16th–17th centuries as architecture and urban planning expanded, with ‘raze’ used to describe the purposeful leveling of buildings or fortifications. The verb is typically contrasted with ‘raze’’s near-homographs like ‘raise,’ which means to lift, though their spellings are a frequent source of confusion for learners. First known use in English can be traced to 14th century texts, where it described flattening features in landscapes or fortifications before later expanding to built structures. Across centuries, its utility persisted in legal and architectural language, particularly in contexts of redevelopment and reformation.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Raze" and can often be used interchangeably.
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Words that rhyme with "Raze"
-aze sounds
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