# How is iOS pronounced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2017, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405 "2017-01-05T17:50:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/1 "2017-01-05T17:50:06Z")
I’ve never heard it. Only read the letters. I’m not an Apple guy. Is it just the letters. I O S Like you’d pronounce I O U? Or is there a word pronounced like DOS or SCSI, “skuzzy”? no one says the letters. Unless they are a newbie. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/2 "2017-01-05T17:54:10Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Is it just the letters. I O S Like you’d pronounce I O U? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/3 "2017-01-05T18:10:35Z")
That’s what I thought. The internet seems split. But I knew there are some hardcore Apple and Mac users here that would know. I’ve always said each letter like this link. > **[How to pronounce iOS - PronounceItRight](https://www.pronounceitright.com/pronunciation/ios-9678)** > > iOS: learn how to pronounce iOS in English with the correct pronunciation approved by native linguists. Read about iOS This hurts my ears [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/lHhM8tB_wFg/maxresdefault.jpg "How to pronounce iOS 10") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHhM8tB_wFg) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/4 "2017-01-05T18:34:05Z")
I believe Apple and most everyone pronounces it _eye ohs_. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/5 "2017-01-05T18:40:16Z")
I’m wrong, went and watched a video of Steve Jobs introducing the software and he stated each letter separately. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/6 "2017-01-05T21:40:09Z")
See you in a jiff. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/7 "2017-01-05T22:43:16Z")
I have only ever heard it as “I O S” like in the “I O U” example you gave. I didn’t realize there was any sort of split. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/8 "2017-01-05T23:12:08Z")
Eye Oh Es ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/9 "2017-01-06T02:25:03Z")
Operating system for an iDevice. Assuming that people normally abbreviate “operating system” to “oh ess” then it would be eye oh ess. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/10 "2017-01-06T05:28:34Z")
OK, how about OS X. Everyone I know says it like Malcolm. Then I came to know a programmer who said _he_ (and his buds) say Oh Es Ten. At least it’s not ordinal. By pronunciation, at least. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/11 "2017-01-06T06:23:16Z")
While DOS made a word, so was pronounced like one - I’ve only ever heard the generic OS for Operating System pronounced as “oh-ess”. Since Apple iAnything is pronounced with “eye”-whatever (eye-pad, eye-pod, eye-cloud, eye-phone) , it’s only logical that Apple’s nomenclature applied to their OS would be “eye-oh-ess” Unless the acronym makes a nice word, it seems to be pronounced as the letters. Many many years ago, one of my coworkers came back from a conference about online IBM (eye-bee-em) mainframes chuckling. It had taken the instructor half a day to realize that when our people talked about “kicks” they meant the same as his CICS (or as he said it, “see-eye-see-ess”) ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/12 "2017-01-06T10:21:52Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > OK, how about OS X. > > Everyone I know says it like Malcolm. Then I came to know a programmer who said _he_ (and his buds) say Oh Es Ten. It’s oh es ten, the X has always stood for the Roman numeral, not the letter itself. But the Mac system name is now macOS, mac oh es, since the release of Sierra, see air uh. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/13 "2017-01-06T15:56:13Z")
I pronounce it like a sugar. Fructose, glucose, dextrose, sucrose, eye-ose. Like BIOS, but without the “b”. I will also accept it if you rhyme it with DOS, which unfortunately does not sound like the Spanish numeral. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/14 "2017-01-06T16:01:10Z")
Eye Oh Ess for me. But then, I think the film \*American History X \*is the 9th sequel to _American History_. And I think the singer Adele has three syllables in her name. I am the epy-tome of bad pronounciators. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/15 "2017-01-06T16:27:17Z")
O-S-X, i-O-S. O S stands for Operating System and i because that’s an apple thing. On the other hand we say DOS like it’s a word, however, I think that’s because so many of us got a computer before Windows, saw the “MS-DOS” (or some variant of that) and just said the word without even knowing it was an acronym. Along came books (ie DOS for dummies) that just pounded it in even more. If the first screen that came up said “Welcome to M.S.D.O.S” or Microsoft Disk Operating System (MSDOS), we may have never started pronouncing the word DOS. Now, those cameras that Canon makes, the EOS series, not E-O-S, but said as a word eeyyooosss (kinda like Eeyore). Even on one of my camera message boards people were a bit surprised the first time there was a commercial on TV for the Rebel and they realized they were saying it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/16 "2017-01-06T16:52:39Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Now, those cameras that Canon makes, the EOS series, not E-O-S, but said as a word eeyyooosss (kinda like Eeyore). Even on one of my camera message boards people were a bit surprised the first time there was a commercial on TV for the Rebel and they realized they were saying it wrong. I’ve always said “Ee Oh Ess” for the camera, but “Oh Ess Ex” for the apple operating system. I hate the Romans and their damn fool numbers. And Hollywood, too, for using them as copyright dates. Why make me translate MCMLVII? Why not just use the conventional numbering system? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/17 "2017-01-06T17:33:37Z")
THrōt wôrb(ə)lər ˈman-ˌgrōv. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/18 "2017-01-06T18:50:38Z")
OSX is pronounced O-S-ten. It succeeded OS9, which succeeded OS8, which (confusingly) succeeded “System 7”. Clearly Apple’s marketing team kept changing their mind back then. Once OSX came out they also started naming crap after cats. ---
**Author:** ![Vinum\_Lupum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Vinum\_Lupum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vinum_Lupum)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/19 "2017-01-07T02:57:59Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > OK, how about OS X. > > Everyone I know says it like Malcolm. Then I came to know a programmer who said _he_ (and his buds) say Oh Es Ten. > > At least it’s not ordinal. By pronunciation, at least. Officially, Apple says it’s “oh ess ten”, but everyone I know, including a guy who used to own a business that bought/sold/repaired/upgraded Macs pronounces it “oh ess ecks”. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405/20 "2017-01-07T03:53:32Z")
> [@Vinum\_Lupum](#): > > Officially, Apple says it’s “oh ess ten”, but everyone I know, including a guy who used to own a business that bought/sold/repaired/upgraded Macs pronounces it “oh ess ecks”. I beta-tested OSX, supported it professionally since it was first released, and I assure you everyone you know mispronounces it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-ios-pronounced/776405.md?page=2)