How to pronounce sieve
Say it like SIV. Sieve is a single syllable, so the whole word carries the stress.
Click the play button next to American or British to hear how to pronounce sieve. Choose Slow to hear each sound clearly.
- SIV
- Main stress
- Lighter stress
- Unstressed
Sieve pronunciation, sound by sound
Read the parts left to right, then blend them together without pausing.
- SIVSay this part loudest and longest. The vowel is the "i" in sit.
American vs British pronunciation of sieve
American and British speakers say sieve in essentially the same way: /sɪv/ in the US and /siːv/ in the UK.
British respelling: SEEV.
What does sieve mean?
- A device with a mesh, grate, or otherwise perforated bottom to separate, in a granular material, larger particles from smaller ones, or to separate solid objects from a liquid.“Use the sieve to get the pasta from the water.”
- A process, physical or abstract, that arrives at a final result by filtering out unwanted pieces of input from a larger starting set of input.“Given a list of consecutive numbers starting at 1, the Sieve of Eratosthenes algorithm will find all of the prime numbers.”
- A person, or their mind, that cannot remember things or is unable to keep secrets.
- To strain, sift or sort using a sieve.
- To concede; to let in.
Where does sieve come from?
From Middle English sive, syfe, from Old English sife, from Proto-West Germanic *sibi (“sieve”), from Proto-Indo-European *seyp-, *seyb- (“to pour, sieve, strain, run, drip”).
Similar and opposite words
Similar meaning
Words that rhyme with sieve
Practicing rhymes is a quick way to lock in the vowel sound of sieve.
Questions about saying sieve
How do you pronounce sieve?
Say SIV. The American pronunciation is /sɪv/. In British English it is /siːv/. Press play above to hear it at normal speed or slowly.
How many syllables are in sieve?
Sieve is a single syllable, so the whole word carries the stress. Broken into parts: SIV.
Do Americans and Brits say sieve the same way?
Almost exactly. The American form is /sɪv/ and the British form is /siːv/, so you can use either pronunciation with any listener.