# "Jewlery" vs. "Jewelry" and other commonly mispronounced words.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 18, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989 "2004-06-18T04:29:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/1 "2004-06-18T04:29:38Z")
Y’know. Nuke-u-ler instead of nuclear. Or, as I just realized after a coupla vodka tonics and a boring Tonight Show interview, “jewlery” instead of “jewelry.” What do you usually say?
And what are other examples?
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### Author:  [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/2 "2004-06-18T04:37:34Z")
It makes me grind my teeth whenever our esteemed President says nook-you-ler.
A good friend of mine consistently says ‘fustrated’ instead of ‘f **r** ustrated’, which makes me nuts.
Another one calls it a mute point rather than a moot point.
Enough people drop the r in Feb **r** uary that I guess I shouldn’t get worked up about it. Ditto with the second t in twenty (‘twenny’). I had a third grade teacher who drilled us on both of those, and I’ve been careful about them every since.
I actually pronounce ‘jewelry’ as something like jool-ree, which sidesteps your problem entirely 🙂
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### Author:  [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/3 "2004-06-18T04:42:14Z")
> [@Only Mostly Dead](#):
>
> Y’know. Nuke-u-ler instead of nuclear. Or, as I just realized after a coupla vodka tonics and a boring Tonight Show interview, “jewlery” instead of “jewelry.” What do you usually say?
>
> And what are other examples?
First, a slight hijack. When I was 10 our school had a field trip to a museum, I forget which one. Anyway, they had a special exhibit called ‘Soviet Jewry’. this was around 1978, and the Jews living in Soviet Russia were known to be having a thin time of it. This exhibit showed some pictures and had some artwork of these people living oppressed behind the Iron Curtain.
Well, our guide gathered us 5th-graders together at the entrance of the exhibit and started talking to us about the situation in Russia and what we were going to see, and some adults walking around the museum drifted over and started listening to the spiel. After about five or ten minutes of guide-speak, one man interrupted none too politely, saying “I don’t care about all this, I just wanna see the Soviet **Jewelry** ”. :wally ;j
I say jew-el-ree, nu-clee-ur and Feb-u-wary (I don’t pronounce the ‘r’).
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### Author:  [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/4 "2004-06-18T04:50:48Z")
One of my pet peeves is “Real **a** tor” instead “Realtor”. I especially hate it in radio ads were the realtors are speaking. They should know how to pronounce their own profession! I used to have a person who worked for me who collected pats due accounts from libraries. But I couldn’t stop her from calling them “libaries”. It grated every time I heard it.
StG
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### Author:  [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/5 "2004-06-18T04:52:46Z")
> [@GilaB](#):
>
> Another one calls it a mute point rather than a moot point.
>
> I actually pronounce ‘jewelry’ as something like jool-ree, which sidesteps your problem entirely 🙂
I usually end up something more like the two syllable jool-ree as well, but if I consider it, it comes out much nearer “jewelry” than “jewlery”.
And I just remembered the days of the week. Mondee, Tuesdee, Wensdee, Thursdee, Fridee, Saturdee, and Sundee. That ones big in certain Baltimore 'burbs.
Mute point does bother me, as does expresso.
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### Author:  [@Chotii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chotii)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/6 "2004-06-18T04:59:08Z")
> [@Only Mostly Dead](#):
>
> And I just remembered the days of the week. Mondee, Tuesdee, Wensdee, Thursdee, Fridee, Saturdee, and Sundee. That ones big in certain Baltimore 'burbs.
I must be the only person I know, outside of my husband’s family (from whom I picked it up) who pronounce ‘Wednesday’ as “Wed’n’sday”.
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### Author:  [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/7 "2004-06-18T05:15:49Z")
> [@Rufus Xavier](#):
>
> Soviet **Jewelry**
What’s all this I hear about Soviet Jewelry?
_Never mind!_
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### Author:  [@Kitchen\_Wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kitchen_Wench)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/8 "2004-06-18T10:16:13Z")
Mispronounciation of words is one of my biggest peeves. When I read the OP, I immediately thought of realtor, nuclear and some other commonly mispronounced words. Height being pronounced as “heighth” grates on my raw nerves. Like nails on a chalkboard, I tell ya!
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### Author:  [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/9 "2004-06-18T11:09:48Z")
> [@Only Mostly Dead](#):
>
> And I just remembered the days of the week. Mondee, Tuesdee, Wensdee, Thursdee, Fridee, Saturdee, and Sundee. That ones big in certain Baltimore 'burbs.
Oh, wow, that’s the one I was going to say. And check out my location. 😛
It drives me nuts when people say the days of the week like that.
I have a friend who says “Verelcro” instead of “Velcro.” It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.
And I hate “heighth” with a passion.
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### Author:  [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/10 "2004-06-18T11:11:04Z")
Heh, **masonite** , that was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this thread.
Let me axe you something… what’s up with saying “mischievious” rather than “mischievous”?
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/11 "2004-06-18T11:39:57Z")
Ack… “mischievious” grates my cheddar, too. As does “illuminous” for “luminous”. There are others, but I can’t think of them right now.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/12 "2004-06-18T11:53:47Z")
I hate hate hate hearing “jag-wire” for jaguar. And I live close enough to Jacksonville to hear people doing it all the time, even on TV and the radio! Check out the spelling of the word! It should clearly be pronounced “jag-WAR”! (Or even, “jag-u-war”.)
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### Author:  [@PretzelFlip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PretzelFlip)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/13 "2004-06-18T11:55:23Z")
People correcting me when I say the letter h. It is ‘aitch’ NOT ‘haitch’!!! I am a Northerner (anyone who is not English: Northerners are considered stupid) and people assume I am just ignorant and slovenly in my pronunciation! AGHHH.
Secondly, people saying pacific instead of specific. Oh my god…do you KNOW what you are saying!!!
Anyway, I feel better for that now…
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/14 "2004-06-18T12:17:58Z")
My SO loves to eat (and to say, which is worse) “Have-a-rotty” cheese. “Sure,” I say, “here’s the havarti,” but so far no change.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/15 "2004-06-18T12:21:13Z")
There’s a guy I know (look up “pretentious” in the dictionary for a photo of him – but that’s another story) who says “f **l** atigued”. He also used to say “nem-nis”. It took me a while to figure out he meant “nemesis”. The funny thing is that he’s a wanna-be film producer. (He wants to _start_ as a producer, since he “already put in his time” as a PA 20 years ago. :rolleyes: ) I can just imagine him pitching an idea: “Finally the hero’s nemnis is flatigued…”
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/16 "2004-06-18T12:48:03Z")
Here’s another one: “Nassau” for “NASA”.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/17 "2004-06-18T13:22:45Z")
Not because of what they eat, but how they pronounce “vegan.” Even the dictionary (which is _not always right_) allows the pronunciation “veeeeegan,” rather than the more sensible “veh-jan.”
After all, you eat “vegetables,” not “veeeegatables.”
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### Author:  [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/18 "2004-06-18T13:37:25Z")
Who the hell says heigh **th**???
My peeves, and here in Baltimore they get petted quite often, are:
**lie-berry** for library
**tar** for tire
**arn** for iron
**com-poo-ter** for computer
**wooh-der** -(like the ‘oo’ in wood, not like the ‘oo’ in boo) for water
and I can’t even spell how some Baltimorians pronounce Q phoenetically. It’s something like COO instead of kyu. Highly annoying.
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### Author:  [@ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChoosyChipsAndCeilingWhacks)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/19 "2004-06-18T13:39:12Z")
Annoying and common: Prolly. It’s prolly gonna rain.
It’s **prob-a-bly** you nincompoop! Three syllables. Ack!
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewlery-vs-jewelry-and-other-commonly-mispronounced-words/250989/20 "2004-06-18T13:42:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Who the hell says heigh **th**???
I say “height”, so it never occured to me to look it up until now. Here’s what [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.com) has to say:
> [@](#):
>
> highth
>
> \Highth\ (h[imac]th or h[imac]tth), n. Variant of Height. [Obs.]
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