# How do you pronounce the word "idea"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-idea/929539>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 2, 2021, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-idea/929539 "2021-01-02T20:32:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-idea/929539/41 "2021-01-03T20:14:25Z")

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I’ve only every heard “I-dee” from my in-laws, from Appalachia, who did not speak a mainstream dialect. Everywhere else in the US I’ve heard it with three syllables, usually “I-dee-uh”

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**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-idea/929539/42 "2021-01-03T21:17:23Z")

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> [@CookingWithGas](#):
>
> I would say it’s the teacher who is putting on airs.
> 
> > [@Mallard](#):
> >
> > “I lost my Idy too but not in a flood.”
> 
> “…I lost my I.D. in… in a flood…”  
> “I lost my wife, too - her name wasn’t Idy, though, and it wasn’t in a flood…”

Forgive me for failing to google first.

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-idea/929539/43 "2021-01-03T21:45:54Z")

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> [@Mallard](#):
>
> Forgive me for failing to google first.

🙂

I remember two lines from that movie. That was one of them. The other one was, “Your car is uglier than I am!”

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**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-the-word-idea/929539/44 "2021-01-04T05:33:30Z")

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He might have said that out of dislike of me. I was a little snotty/clever and knew it. I think I corrected him on the first day of class (I don’t remember if I was right or wrong).

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