One syllable: Wood.
wuud
/wʊd/
Wood is pronounced wuud (/wʊd/). It has one syllable (Wood), with the stress on "Wood". Wood is a hard, fibrous structural tissue found in trees and used for construction and crafts. It refers to the material itself as well as a skeletal frame or forested area. The sound of the word is short, with a single syllable, and its meaning is tied closely to timber and growth materials in everyday language.
nounWood is a hard, fibrous structural tissue found in trees and used for construction and crafts. It refers to the material itself as well as a skeletal frame or forested area. The sound of the word is short, with a single syllable, and its meaning is tied closely to timber and growth materials in everyday language.
"The carpenter picked a piece of wood from the timber rack."
"A forest trail opened into a clearing of old wood and fallen leaves."
"He carved a small wooden box out of a single block of wood."
You pronounce it as /wʊd/, a single syllable with a short, rounded back vowel followed by a voiced alveolar stop. Start with the lip rounding for /w/, then open your jaw slightly for the short /ʊ/ vowel, and end with a clear /d/ touch at the alveolar ridge. Think of it as “wood” with a crisp stop closure. IPA reference: /wʊd/.
Common errors include confusing the /ʊ/ with /uː/ in some speakers, resulting in a ‘wood’ sounding like ‘wood’ with a longer vowel or like ‘oo’ in 'food'. Also, some learners voice the final /d/ too softly or omit it, producing ‘woo’ or a vowel-only sound. Focus on a short, precise d-closure at the end and keep the vowel tense but short. Ensure your lips aren’t spreading into a wide /uː/ configuration.
In US, UK, and AU accents, /wʊd/ remains a short, rounded vowel with a crisp /d/. The main variation is in vowel quality before consonants in surrounding words; the nucleus /ʊ/ can be a bit more lax in some US dialects, but the core is non-rhotic only in some UK contexts. Across US/UK/AU, the /w/ and /d/ timings stay compact; accent differences emerge mainly in surrounding vowels and connected speech rhythm.
The challenge lies in the short, lax /ʊ/ vowel that some learners find tricky, plus producing a clean, audible final /d/. It’s easy to mispronounce as /wud/ with a reduced vowel or drop the /d/ entirely when speaking quickly. Practicing with minimal pairs and slow, deliberate articulation helps you achieve a balanced /wʊd/ sound, while keeping the tongue close to the alveolar ridge for the /d/.
Unlike words with a long /uː/ as in 'wooden' or 'food', 'wood' uses a short /ʊ/ vowel and a final /d/ without a following consonant. It’s not a diphthong, so you should avoid gliding into another vowel. The single syllable makes stress default to WOOD (unstressed in compounds), and in connected speech, you may hear slight vowel reduction in rapid phrases, but the core form remains /wʊd/.
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Wood comes from Old English wudu, related to Proto-Germanic wudu- and Proto-Indo-European root *ud- meaning moisture or wetness, transitioning to plant tissue that is hardened and fibrous. The term referred to the forest or tree material found in a living tree and to the byproduct used in building or fuel. In early usage, the word described both the living material within a tree and the timber prepared for use, with distinctions gradually tightening between living woods (in the tree) and worked woods (lumber). By the medieval period, wood was central to construction, tool handles, and fuel, with dialectal variations in naming specific woods (oak, ash, pine). The word’s semantic field expanded into figurative language (as in “not a scrap of wood” implying abundance) and into modern descriptors for timber grades and species, while still retaining its core sense of the fibrous plant tissue familiar to carpentry, furniture-making, and forestry. The single-syllable form remained stable across centuries and languages closest to English, reflecting a fundamental material class in human civilization that predates metalworking and persists in architecture and design today.
💡 Etymology tip: Understanding word origins can help you remember pronunciation patterns and recognize related words in the same language family.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Wood" and can often be used interchangeably.
🔄 These words have opposite meanings to "Wood" and show contrast in usage.
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Words that rhyme with "Wood"
-ood sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
🎵 Rhyme tip: Practicing with rhyming words helps you master similar sound patterns and improves your overall pronunciation accuracy.
