teeth
/tiθ/
teeth is pronounced teeth (/tiθ/). Teeth refers to the hard, bony projections in the jaws of most vertebrates, used for biting and grinding food. In humans, there are typically a full set in each jaw, arranged in rows. The word is plural and treated as a plural noun; a single tooth is a tooth. Its pronunciation emphasizes a voiceless dental fricative followed by a long /iː/ vowel and a final voiceless /θ/ or /t/? Wait—(Note: This line is intentionally left to be corrected by the content below.).
Teeth refers to the hard, bony projections in the jaws of most vertebrates, used for biting and grinding food. In humans, there are typically a full set in each jaw, arranged in rows. The word is plural and treated as a plural noun; a single tooth is a tooth. Its pronunciation emphasizes a voiceless dental fricative followed by a long /iː/ vowel and a final voiceless /θ/ or /t/? Wait—(Note: This line is intentionally left to be corrected by the content below.)
"The dentist inspected your teeth for any signs of decay."
"She brushed her teeth twice a day to maintain gum health."
"The bite marks on the apple showed she had emptied her teeth into it with effort."
Pronounce as /tiːθ/. Start with the tongue tip touching the upper front teeth, the lips relaxed, and the voice off (voiceless). The vowel is a long /iː/ as in “seat,” followed by the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ as in “thief.” Make sure to keep the /iː/ vowel steady before the /θ/ cluster ends with a clean release. You’ll often hear /tiːθ/ in careful speech or when emphasizing dental health.
Two common errors are substituting /f/ or /v/ for the /θ/ sound (e.g., /tiːf/ or /tiːv/) and misplacing the tongue—pulling the tongue away or using a lax /ɪ/ vowel. Correct by practicing the dental fricative with the tongue tip just behind the upper teeth, allowing a small air stream to pass, and sustaining a long /iː/ before the /θ/. A slow, deliberate pace helps; then speed up as you maintain accuracy.
In US, UK, and AU, the core is /tiːθ/. The main variation is how forcefully you release the /θ/: US tends to be crisper with a slightly more forward tongue posture, UK can be a bit more dental with a subtle difference in tongue contact, and AU often merges with a softer /θ/ due to broader vowel quality; however, most educated speakers preserve /θ/ clearly. Ensure your tongue grazes the back of the upper front teeth in all accents for consistency.
The difficulty lies in the dental fricative /θ/, which involves the tongue tip contacting the teeth edge while keeping air flowing. It’s a voiceless, sibilant-like sound that isn’t common in many languages, so learners often substitute /t/ or /f/. Tips: place the tongue tip gently at the inner edge of the upper teeth, push air through, and avoid biting. Keep the /iː/ vowel long and steady just before the /θ/ to maintain clarity.
Teeth is a one-syllable word with primary stress on that syllable inherently; there’s no stress variation across phrases because it’s a single unit. In connected speech, you’ll keep a bright, clear onset with the /t/ release and a crisp /θ/ final. When emphasizing dental health in sentences, you may slightly elongate the vowel /iː/ to stress the word, but the word itself remains monosyllabic.
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The word teeth comes from Old English teað or tǣþ, related to Proto-Germanic teþan. It is cognate with Dutch tanden, German Zähne, and Gothic taþs, all pointing to a common Proto-Indo-European root *d̥H-n-/*d̥H-n-t- referring to a tooth or cutting edge. The Old English form teað already signaled a plural noun for multiple teeth; the modern plural remains teeth with the same spelling but a stable plural mark. Historically, the term evolved to denote both a single tooth (tooth) and, by extension, the full dentition. The semantic core—hard projecting structures used for biting—appears in many Germanic languages with similar phonetic changes. In Middle English, the plural was often written as teþ or teð, reflecting alternate spellings before standardization. Over time, the dental system and morphology in humans cemented a plural noun with unchanged plural morphology, and “teeth” is now a highly irregular form in English, contrasting with the singular “tooth.” The word’s usage spans anatomy, dentistry, zoology, and everyday talk about biting and chewing, maintaining its essential sense across centuries and dialects.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "teeth" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "teeth" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "teeth"
-ath sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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