# Pronunciation of "twat" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 26, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195 "2012-11-26T20:23:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [November 27, 2012, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/21 "2012-11-27T05:18:10Z")
American here. I’ve always thought it rhymed with “hot”. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/22 "2012-11-27T05:26:06Z")
UK here, “hat”, but understand it’s sometimes pronounced differently. \*There was a young lady named Grace Who said "If the whole human race "Depends upon what "The boys call a twat “Then it’s put in a darned awkward place!” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/23 "2012-11-27T07:00:42Z")
[First time I saw the word](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV_rxoY88uo). Mispronounced it as rhyming with hot, but soon was corrected by various other occasions of British Pop Culture. ---
**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:** [November 27, 2012, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/24 "2012-11-27T08:40:29Z")
Another American, “…hot.” And I NEVER thought of it as a Britishism. Even in the mid-80s, when I was around 14 years old, there was a stupid joke based on the word and on the then-airline TWA. Nothing British about it at all. (This was in the NY metro area, FWIW). ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/25 "2012-11-27T09:00:04Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > It definitely rhymes with hot in Canada. The problem with it rhyming with hot or hat in the US is that in some places, hot and hat rhyme! (Upstate New York for example. Perhaps The Detroit area too.) Nope, born & raised in the Detroit area. Hot has the same vowel sound as in father (hät), or an “ahhh” sound. Hat is pronounced with your typical short-vowel ‘a-sound’. Like bat, sat, rat, or shat. I’ve only heard twat pronounced in this area as twät. “My favorite band is Twathammer. They’re hot!” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/26 "2012-11-27T09:18:42Z")
Rhymes with hat. ‘Twot’ is also a word in my part of the UK though. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/27 "2012-11-27T11:30:11Z")
It more-or-less rhymes with “hot” for me in SA, but I’m familiar with the UK “hat” pronunciation and may use it for extra emphasis if around Brits. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/28 "2012-11-27T12:18:37Z")
I’m British. When I was twelve I had a hamster which somehow got nicknamed “Twottie”. It is only now that I am thinking :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/29 "2012-11-27T12:32:47Z")
The 17th-century satirical poem “Vanity of Vanities” gives the British pronunciation, \*They talk’d of his having a Cardinall’s Hat They’d send him as soon an Old Nun’s Twat \*, which was picked up by Robert Browning, who made [the most embarrassing boner in literary history](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001812.html) when he took it from that context to mean an article of nun’s clothing. \*Then owls and bats Cowls and twats \*… but at least the British pronunciation was preserved. I guess this goes to show how much more easily the brain picks up the meter and rhyme of words than it does their meaning. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/30 "2012-11-27T12:44:26Z")
I’m from Aus, and twat rhymes with wanker. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/31 "2012-11-27T13:31:26Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The 17th-century satirical poem “Vanity of Vanities” gives the British pronunciation, > > \*They talk’d of his having a Cardinall’s Hat > They’d send him as soon an Old Nun’s Twat \*, > > which was picked up by Robert Browning, who made [the most embarrassing boner in literary history](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001812.html) when he took it from that context to mean an article of nun’s clothing. > > \*Then owls and bats > Cowls and twats \*… > > but at least the British pronunciation was preserved. I guess this goes to show how much more easily the brain picks up the meter and rhyme of words than it does their meaning. Now, boner, there’s another word with varying connotations. 😃 I don’t think the non-sexual meaning is part of British English. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/32 "2012-11-27T13:49:19Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Well, I can’t tell the difference. I had female colleague in Ogdensburg who used to tell me “you look hat!” I used to date someone who pronounced hot as hust. Weird! ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/33 "2012-11-27T14:45:09Z")
It depends which meaning is intended. Rhymes with “hot” is the female body part. Rhymes with “hat” is a wanker. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/34 "2012-11-27T15:32:21Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > It doesn’t in any British English dialect I know of. London/Essex/Anywhere-else-down-there. UK, rhymes with “hat”. First time I heard it rhyme with “hot” was this scene from Easy A: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WL_sMtQoRGI/hqdefault.jpg "Easy A: Twat") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL_sMtQoRGI) I had to go online to check what she’d said, which makes it amusing later on when she has to explains to her Parents what she said and, when they can’t think what the “T-Word” would be, she tells them it is “definitely slang, think British”: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vufls33CbdQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Easy A "T" Clip") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vufls33CbdQ) ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/35 "2012-11-27T18:09:27Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I’m from the UK, and it rhymes with hat. Pronouncing it any other way over here would make you sound like a, well, you know. Cunt? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/36 "2012-11-27T18:17:18Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Cunt? Please. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/37 "2012-11-27T18:32:11Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > London/Essex/Anywhere-else-down-there. No, they’re different sounds. I’m originally from Essex and now speak with an RP accent. Cunt is /kʌnt/ and can’t is /kɑ:nt/. The OED agrees with me, but I can’t link to it. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/38 "2012-11-28T08:54:31Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > No, they’re different sounds. I’m originally from Essex and now speak with an RP accent. Cunt is /kʌnt/ and can’t is /kɑ:nt/. The OED agrees with me, but I can’t link to it. But it depends on your own accent’s pronunciation of “can’t”, doesn’t it? To me (grew up in Warwickshire) they sound remarkably similar. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/39 "2012-11-28T10:13:14Z")
I read how in posh Estuary accents, the pronunciation of [æ] has recently been shifting to [ʌ]; e.g., hat pronounced like hut. An anecdote illustrating this: A young lawyer working on an important case took the documents to a remote country retreat to work on them to be ready for court in London on Monday morning. The judge in charge of the case called to say he’d discovered that one more document was absolutely crucial but had been left behind in London. The lawyer said helpfully, “Fax it up, m’lord.” The judge said, “Yes, I’m afraid it does, quite.” ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2012, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195/40 "2012-11-28T10:44:18Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I read how in posh Estuary accents, the pronunciation of [æ] has recently been shifting to [ʌ]; e.g., hat pronounced like hut. An anecdote illustrating this: > > A young lawyer working on an important case took the documents to a remote country retreat to work on them to be ready for court in London on Monday morning. The judge in charge of the case called to say he’d discovered that one more document was absolutely crucial but had been left behind in London. The lawyer said helpfully, “Fax it up, m’lord.” The judge said, “Yes, I’m afraid it does, quite.” Who on earth asks someone to “fax it up”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-of-twat/642195.md?page=3)