# Another pronunciation vexation - crudites **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 11, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618 "2025-12-11T17:32:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/1 "2025-12-11T17:32:59Z")
Carrots and celery with a nice dip. Love em. Always been just veggies to me. But I do realize it is properly (smugly) called “crudites”. In 79 years I have never heard anyone pronounce crudites although I have puzzled over it a few times. Probably not “crew- DYTES” sez I. Most likely “crew DEE tees”. I’m glad I never said that as I looked it up. It is “crew di TAYS”. I ain’t saying that. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/2 "2025-12-11T17:39:36Z")
It’s an old fashioned word. Like hors d’oeuvres, petits fours. Now it’s charcuterie. Food words always confound me. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/3 "2025-12-11T17:40:27Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > I’m glad I never said that as I looked it up. It is “crew di TAYS”. I ain’t saying that. “crew-di-TAY.” It’s a French word, so you don’t pronounce the final consonant. Pronounce it however you like, but that’s the correct pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/4 "2025-12-11T17:44:31Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > It’s an old fashioned word. Like hors d’oeuvres. > > Now it’s charcuterie. If you’re saying they mean the same thing, that’s incorrect. Charcuterie is meats. Hors d’oeuvres are anything meant to be served as an appetizer, including vegetables and meat. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/5 "2025-12-11T17:46:07Z")
In my dialect: “crudites”: /vedge-ee-playt/ “hors d’oeuvres”: /a-peh-tize-er/ “charcuterie”: /meet-n-cheez-playt/ ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/6 "2025-12-11T19:41:09Z")
Tom Sawyer famously once delivered an explanation of French to his bemused pal Huck Finn. This thread reminds me of that exchange. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/7 "2025-12-11T19:45:42Z")
Crew-di-TAY Never heard it any other way. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/8 "2025-12-11T21:08:01Z")
There’s a huge prior thread about this. Perhaps someone with a better connection than I have right now will post a link. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/9 "2025-12-11T21:12:32Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > It’s an old fashioned word. Like hors d’oeuvres, petits fours. > > Now it’s charcuterie. > > Food words always confound me.. Food itself confuses me. I’ll leave it at that. But I can pronounce them fairly well. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/10 "2025-12-12T03:53:57Z")
If you don’t like the selection, you can pronounce it “crud eats”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/11 "2025-12-12T05:43:04Z")
Funny! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/12 "2025-12-12T07:14:14Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > It’s an old fashioned word. Like hors d’oeuvres Which is pronounced “horse doovers”. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/13 "2025-12-12T07:21:47Z")
> [@susan](#): > > There’s a huge prior thread about this. Perhaps someone with a better connection than I have right now will post a link. Found it and it references an even older thread. Anyway, a lot of posters are like me, somewhat know the word but have never heard anyone say it. > [@The word "crudités"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-crudites/581287/7): > > California. I don’t know how it got into my vocabulary but I’ve never heard it used. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/14 "2025-12-12T08:48:39Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Which is pronounced “horse doovers”. Or as I pronounced them when I was six and at a family gathering, “horse devors.” My mean relatives laughed, my kind mother gently corrected me. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/15 "2025-12-12T11:58:52Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > It’s an old fashioned word. Like hors d’oeuvres, petits fours. > > Now it’s charcuterie. Pedantic moment (not enough tea in me yet) They aren’t old fashioned words, they’re French terms. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/16 "2025-12-12T12:06:15Z")
Yes, but I suspect that Beck was alluding to how the heyday of American fascination with French cuisine – and, by extension, the application of certain French terms for more general types of dishes – was circa 1950 to 1990 (think Julia Child and friends). ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/17 "2025-12-12T12:08:16Z")
The “crudites” saga: Many years ago, my wife and I received an invitation to a work-sponsored dinner/dance. @Dendarii_Dame noted that the invitation described the dinner as having “upscale crudites to include:” (the list of vegetables) which struck her as amusingly over-fancy. At the dinner/dance, she spotted the vegetables on display and quoted that passage from the invitation (mockingly, she thought!) and one of the waiters rushed over to delightedly say: “You remembered that! I wrote that!” P.S. She knew it was “crew di TAYS” (“Crud-dites” sounds like the name of a Doctor Who villain) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/18 "2025-12-12T12:40:36Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > In my dialect: > “crudites”: /vedge-ee-playt/ > “hors d’oeuvres”: /a-peh-tize-er/ > “charcuterie”: /meet-n-cheez-playt/ This is how i usually pronounce those words, too. But we serve the first of those on a plate at news year’s eve, and my husband likes to call it the crud-it-eze. So we discuss what crud-it-eze to buy and cut up. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/19 "2025-12-12T12:57:36Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > But I do realize it is properly (smugly) called “crudites”. If you spell it correctly, the correct pronunciation is more or less clear: CRUDITÉS The accent aigu is not silent (nor optional, unless it is missing from your keyboard…) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2025, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618/20 "2025-12-12T13:18:02Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Tom Sawyer famously once delivered an explanation of French to his bemused pal Huck Finn. This thread reminds me of that exchange. I don’t recall that. I DO remember Huck and Jim having that discussion in _his_ book. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-pronunciation-vexation-crudites/1025618.md?page=2)