# How to pronounce "pwn" and "pwnd" ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474 "2010-05-23T16:50:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/21 "2010-05-23T20:18:10Z")
[Quote=BrotherCadfael] I pronounce it just like it’s spelled. [/quote] Me too! P as in pneumonia, n as in autumn, and w as in sword. Pwn. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/22 "2010-05-23T20:59:12Z")
Damn it. A thread where I’d actually be useful and I show up late to the party. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/23 "2010-05-23T21:01:56Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Damn it. A thread where I’d actually be useful and I show up late to the party. Pwnt. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/24 "2010-05-23T21:16:39Z")
> [@Gustav](#): > > I suppose there’s no formal correct pronounciation and I’m sure there are people who do pronounce the “p”, but the word “pwn” comes from a typo in a text message. It doesn’t come from typos, it’s an element of [eleetspeak](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet), developed by hackers and other pretty nerdy online computing communities. The basic idea is you replace letters with other similar-looking letters or numbers wherever you can: newbie becomes “n00b”, elite becomes eleet, which (outrageously) becomes “31337”, and in this case owned becomes “pwned”. Clearly ‘eleetspeak’ was developed entirely online, so I don’t think there’s any technically correct pronunciations because they weren’t really pronounced. Originally though the letters and numbers were supposed to replace regular English words, so they were probably supposed to be pronounced normally: “pwned” would simply be pronounced “owned”. But everyone nowadays pronounces the P, so I suggest going with that! ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/25 "2010-05-23T21:18:22Z")
It’s pronounced pone and poned in World of Warcraft (well, on TeamSpeek and Ventrillo, to be more accurate). Similarly, teh is often pronounced ‘teh’ these days. So someone might say ‘We totally pwned that boss, it was teh win.’ ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/26 "2010-05-23T21:24:24Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > [Earlier thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=431129). I’m still alone in my rendering. No, I pronounce it that way too. My friends correct me, telling me I’m doing it wrong. But I counter with the fact that I just pwnt them, so I can pronounce it any way I want. And pronouncing it “pooned” is funnier, so that’s how I do it. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/27 "2010-05-23T21:34:01Z")
> [@Randy\_Seltzer](#): > > No, I pronounce it that way too. My friends correct me, telling me I’m doing it wrong. But I counter with the fact that I just pwnt them, so I can pronounce it any way I want. And pronouncing it “pooned” is funnier, so that’s how I do it. If a person in my group of friends ever pronounced it “pooned,” we wouldn’t be laughing with him, we’d be laughing at him. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/28 "2010-05-23T21:35:13Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > It doesn’t come from typos, it’s an element of [eleetspeak](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet), developed by hackers and other pretty nerdy online computing communities. The basic idea is you replace letters with other similar-looking letters or numbers wherever you can: newbie becomes “n00b”, elite becomes eleet, which (outrageously) becomes “31337”, and in this case owned becomes “pwned”. > > Clearly ‘eleetspeak’ was developed entirely online, so I don’t think there’s any technically correct pronunciations because they weren’t really pronounced. Originally though the letters and numbers were supposed to replace regular English words, so they were probably supposed to be pronounced normally: “pwned” would simply be pronounced “owned”. But everyone nowadays pronounces the P, so I suggest going with that! This is completely wrong. It’s not “eleetspeak” and never has been; it’s “leetspeak”, sometimes with an apostrophe thrown in before the “leet”, otherwise known as 1337. Your “etymology” is wrong and just describes how words are spelled & letters are indicated in 1337. And yes, it rhymes with “boned” and “owned”. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/29 "2010-05-23T21:50:18Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > On the show, _Community_, they repeatedly pronounced it as “pone.” Middle-aged mother of teenagers: “You’ve already embarrassed me by getting pwned.” ---
**Author:** ![TurboNuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@TurboNuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TurboNuke)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/30 "2010-05-23T21:51:13Z")
Pwned is leet speak. It seems obvious to meet that its a typo of “owned.” I always thought it would be pronounced the same as “owned” but when the WoW episode of South park came out it was pronounced as powned. So I guess that’s the proper pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/31 "2010-05-23T22:47:27Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > This is completely wrong. > > It’s not “eleetspeak” and never has been; it’s “leetspeak”, sometimes with an apostrophe thrown in before the “leet”, otherwise known as 1337. I’ve seen it written “eleetspeak”. That’s certainly the phrase of which “leetspeak” is a contraction, as you point out yourself by mentioning the apostrophe. Maybe it’s not the most common usage but it’s far from ‘completely wrong’, in fact it’s basically right. > [@](#): > > Your “etymology” is wrong and just describes how words are spelled & letters are indicated in 1337. I don’t understand. What was wrong about what I said? “Leet” involves changing regular English words by either replacing Latinate characters with ASCII characters, like numbers, and/or changing them into other Latinate characters (‘elite’ to ‘leet’ for instance). If that’s wrong please enlighten me. ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/32 "2010-05-23T23:12:48Z")
Leetspeak was something else entirely. “Pwn” is just a meme, a colloquialism that caught on. Leetspeak was basically a secret code, replacing every letter with a mix of numbers and symbols rendering text effectively unreadable to anyone not in the know. ---
**Author:** ![Donovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@Donovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donovan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/33 "2010-05-23T23:13:40Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > I don’t understand. What was wrong about what I said? I think he’s talking about the origin of the word “pwned” - general consensus is it came from a sort of in-joke among counterstrike players when a popular server would flash the presumably mis-typed message ‘\ got pwned’ when \ really got lit up by another player - pwned wasn’t used prior to that except accidentally by poor typists. So it wasn’t created by the substitution of like formed letters, but it traces its origin to a typo made by the player who set up the server. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/34 "2010-05-23T23:32:38Z")
You’re wrong, The Great Philosopher. “eleetspeak” is uncommon, “leetspeak” is more typical. Also, it’s widely accepted that “pwn” was originally from the common typo people make when they mean to write “own”. Your own link doesn’t refer to “leet” as “eleetspeak”, but it does link to an article on [pwn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn) that says “The word pwn most likely came about as a common typo of the word “own” because the “p” and “o” keys are adjacent on a standard English keyboard.” It’s non-standard, but I like to pronounce “pwn” as “pawn”. I like the suggestion that I not only own’d you, but I sold you for cheap to that dodgy shop in the subway station. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/35 "2010-05-23T23:40:41Z")
I’ve always pronounced it as “pee owned.” ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/36 "2010-05-24T00:19:39Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > I’ve always pronounced it as “pee owned.” This might be the one I’m going with. Especially since I can deliberately mispronounce it as “pee - ond” (r/w “beyond”) which would also make sense, I think. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/37 "2010-05-24T00:22:28Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > You’re wrong, The Great Philosopher. “eleetspeak” is uncommon, “leetspeak” is more typical. That was my point! > [@](#): > > Also, it’s widely accepted that “pwn” was originally from the common typo people make when they mean to write “own”. Your own link doesn’t refer to “leet” as “eleetspeak”, but it does link to an article on [pwn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pwn) that says “The word pwn most likely came about as a common typo of the word “own” because the “p” and “o” keys are adjacent on a standard English keyboard.” It also lists “pwn” as a part of “leetspeak”. But OK, maybe it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/38 "2010-05-24T04:03:20Z")
Leetspeak sometimes adopts common typos into the lingo, like “teh,” for instance. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/39 "2010-05-24T04:44:00Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > “Pooned”? That’s a new one. Is that a Welsh-influenced reading of “pwned”? I have to admit that I think of it as ‘pooned’ too, because ‘cwm’ is a favorite exotic word of mine. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474/40 "2010-05-24T05:32:49Z")
IMHO, “poned” is either the ignorant or deliberately ironic pronunciation. “owned” is the classic pronunciation. I’ve been PC gaming for over a decade now, I remember when “pwn” was understood as either a noob misspelling of “own” or a veteran deliberately being funny by appropriating said word. Anyone quoting WoW is wrong. Not that I have anything against WoW, I played it for years. But WoW was like 5 years after “pwn” was commonplace on the internets. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pronounce-pwn-and-pwnd/540474.md?page=3)