A Pronunciation Poll

There is also the distinction in non-US English of “metre” and “meter”, with the former being a unit of measurement, and the latter being a measurement device. Pronounced the same if alone, they vary when appended with a prefix. Hence, "mi-CROM-uh-tuh (unit of measurement) and MI-cro-mee-tuh (measuring device).

Same as The LoadedDog (not surprising as I only live 300 KIL - uh - MEAT - uhs away in Canberra) , but I’ve used the LOM version also. And just plain K as well.

Born & raised in Houston, Texas, suburbs.

ki-LOM-eh-ter, but, thinking it over, may actually be more like ki-LOM-eh-dur.

Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever really used this word in conversation. If referring to distances (or speed/hour), I’d say, “malls.”

Location: Saskatchewan

‘Klick’ is pretty common usage here, I’d say, more so for distance than speed. I don’t recall the last time I heard anyone actually describe their speed in “kilometres per hour,” it’s almost always just the number. As in, “It only took Bob two hours to get back from Regina, cuz he was doing one-thirty the whole way, except for that bit through Chamberlain, of course.” Occasionally someone might use “kph” or “klicks” to make explicit that they don’t mean mph, but in most cases the context itself makes that obvious (as it does in the above example).

Both pronunciations for kilometre are heard around here. I couldn’t say offhand which is more common.

kih-Law-met-ur VA, USA

I’m from Kentucky. We say “MY - uhl”.

Kidding – I say (on the rare occasions when I use the word)

“kill - LOM - meet - er”.

Dublin, Ireland

Kill-om-it-er

The Alamo city. kil-ahm-i-tuhr.
Time for a hijack I guess. I’m curious as to the pronuciation of aluminum in England (al-yu-min-ee-um). In America “mischievous” is a word pronounced by 98% of the population 100% incorrectly (mis-chee-vee-us). Can any Brit verify whether this is the case with aluminum? After all there is only one “I” in the word.

Check a BritEnglish dictionary. In UK, Aus, NZ and other “Imperial” countries, the spelling is ‘aluminium’, 5 syllables, not 4.

I’m from NZ, and say 'kil-uh-meet-uh, but as TLD says, either that or the kil-'om-uh-tuh pronunciation can be heard around here.

KF

Native upstate NYer… wayyyy upstate :cool:

keh-LOM-i-der

Most people I know don’t say “kill” but “kehh”… not quite KUH but not quite KIH either- and the T is more like a D sound- aka the laziest way possible!

Chicago area

Kuh-LAH-mitter

For all of you people starting your pronunciation with “kil” do you really start with the word “KILL” when you say “kilometer”? I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say it that way.

I think what I actually do (as well as most midwesterners) is start with a hard K sound with no vowel and then add the “lah-mitter”. So I guess it’s really:

K-LAH-mitter.

Southern Ontario.

As with many regional differences, what I say depends on … something random. Sometimes I say KILL-o-meter, sometimes kil-AHH-meter. Sometimes it’s even “mile.”

Sometimes “ENN-velope,” sometimes “ONN-velope.”

But always, always “to-MAY-to.”

In my part of the UK (Coventry/West-Midlands) we’re likely to pronounce kilometre and micrometer the same: Kill-OM-ee-ter/Micr-OM-ee-ter, though I think that (at least) the syllable emphasis changes as you go north…