How to pronounce sill
Say it like SIL. Sill 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 sill. Choose Slow to hear each sound clearly.
- SIL
- Main stress
- Lighter stress
- Unstressed
Sill pronunciation, sound by sound
Read the parts left to right, then blend them together without pausing.
- SILSay this part loudest and longest. The vowel is the "i" in sit.
American vs British pronunciation of sill
American and British speakers say sill in essentially the same way: /sɪl/ in the US and /sɪl/ in the UK.
British respelling: SIL.
What does sill mean?
- A breast wall; window breast; horizontal brink which forms the base of a window.“She looked out the window resting her elbows on the window sill.”
- A threshold; horizontal structural member of a building near ground level on a foundation or pilings, or lying on the ground, and bearing the upright portion of a frame; a sill plate.
- A stratum of rock, especially an intrusive layer of igneous rock lying parallel to surrounding strata.
- A young herring.
- The shaft or thill of a carriage.
Where does sill come from?
Cognate with Scots sil, sill (“balk, beam, floor, sill”), Dutch zulle (“sill”), Low German Sull, Sülle (“threshold, ramp, sill”), German Süll, Sülle (“threshold, sill”), Danish syld (“base of a framework building”), Swedish syll (“joist, cr
Words that rhyme with sill
Practicing rhymes is a quick way to lock in the vowel sound of sill.
Questions about saying sill
How do you pronounce sill?
Say SIL. The American pronunciation is /sɪl/. In British English it is /sɪl/. Press play above to hear it at normal speed or slowly.
How many syllables are in sill?
Sill is a single syllable, so the whole word carries the stress. Broken into parts: SIL.
Do Americans and Brits say sill the same way?
Almost exactly. The American form is /sɪl/ and the British form is /sɪl/, so you can use either pronunciation with any listener.