# Words that you mispronounce while reading.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 4, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727 "2003-02-04T17:34:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/1 "2003-02-04T17:34:32Z")
Good thing I rarely have reason to read aloud, so they only get mispronounced in my head…
Maniacal = _Mane-ee- **ack** -el_
Indictment = _In- **dickt** -ment_
Cognac = _Cog-nac_
Persevere= _Per- **sev** -er_
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/2 "2003-02-04T17:39:03Z")
**infrared** - I always see it first as the adjectival form of the nonexistent verb ‘infrare,’ and pronounce it that way before I correct myself.
**arced** just looks funny to me - I don’t pronounce it in my head, but it gives me pause - I don’t read it by word recognition, but have to rework through it each time.
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### Author:  [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/3 "2003-02-04T17:47:09Z")
**misled**
**cowgirl** : "Mize-eld? What the hell is Mize-eld supposed to mean ?
… oh."
I must be thinking of ‘tousled’ and ‘bristled’ and those kinds of words.
And I always, always, spell European as Eurpoean when I type it. I’ve had to Autocorrect it on my computer.
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### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/4 "2003-02-04T17:58:52Z")
**Deus Ex Machina**. It’s always deuce in my mind.
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### Author:  [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/5 "2003-02-04T17:59:45Z")
I always mispronounce _pedantic_.
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### Author:  [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/6 "2003-02-04T18:11:14Z")
cowgirl, me too!!!
I actually said miz-uld to a class i was dictating to at 200 words a minute once. They all stopped and laughed at me. How embarrasskin!
What I think is funny about this is that somehow I had separated miz-uld and misled in my brain, like they were two different words.
I’ve got many others, due to my reading vocabulary. I am pretty much guaranteed to mispronounce an uncommon word, generally resulting in much hilarity from my fellows.
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### Author:  [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/7 "2003-02-04T18:35:07Z")
Too many to name.
See, I tend to see a lot more words in print than I ever hear in conversation. So, when I use one of these words for the first time, more often than not, I mispronounce it.
It’s really embarassing.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/8 "2003-02-04T18:44:38Z")
I just realized this week what the letters e-p-i-t-o-m-e represent in spoken form. I always read it with a long “o” and silent “e”. The sad part is that I use the word in spoken form all the time but never stopped to think how it is written.
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### Author:  [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/9 "2003-02-04T19:20:04Z")
Whenever I see the name Heath I _always_ without fail initially interpret the word as “health.”
I also tend to think of the word “epitome” as being pronounced with long o and silent e.
Persevere always comes off as “preserve.”
I always thought “indict” was spelled “indight” until I finally saw the word in print.
I tend to drop the h in reading “threat” and it comes out “treat.”
“Improvise” sounds like “im-pr_oo_-vise” in my mind when I initially read it. I’m sure others I am not thinking of at the moment will appear in this thread.
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/10 "2003-02-04T19:28:19Z")
Biopic, as in a movie about someone’s life. Always read it as bi-opic, or (I guess) something similar to myopic.
Also miniseries, which I pronounce (in my head) as the plural of “minisery.”
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### Author:  [@ptr2void](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ptr2void)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/11 "2003-02-04T19:40:06Z")
For some reason I have a hard time with awry. I always want to pronounce it as aw’-ree. Sheesh.
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### Author:  [@Batsinma\_Belfry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batsinma_Belfry)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/12 "2003-02-04T21:31:56Z")
Add misled and infrared to my list.
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### Author:  [@Breezy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Breezy)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2003, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/13 "2003-02-04T21:40:39Z")
When I read “beautiful” I say it “bee-ee-a-u-tiful” in my head.
I have always had a hard time spelling this word, and so I started pronouncing it that way in my head, and it has stuck!
Of course, that being said I’m not totally convinced that I didn’t just misspell it!
🙂
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Dirx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Dirx)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/14 "2003-02-05T01:46:01Z")
I always read **gauge** as _gawj_; ie., rhyming with lodge.
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### Author:  [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2003, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/15 "2003-02-05T02:50:11Z")
Epitome.
I always pronounced it Epi-Tome
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### Author:  [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2003, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/16 "2003-02-05T02:57:00Z")
I don’t do this too often, but I have a serious problem reading the name Penelope, and it carries over into speech. It’s Pen-lope, dang it.
I really can’t pronounce it. If I ever were to have a daughter, I cannot name her that.
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### Author:  [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/17 "2003-02-05T04:11:14Z")
I will admit to having read the word “go - ing” as “GOING”, rhyming with BOING, the noise Wiley Coyote’s face makes when hit with a shovel.
Also epitome, misled and umm… there’s another one, it gets me every time…darnit. I can’t think of it. OH! Draught. I know it’s pronounced “draft” but I always want to say “drouwt.”
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Dirx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Dirx)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/18 "2003-02-05T05:05:03Z")
That’s pronounced “draft”?? Ok, a new one for my list. I usually pronounce it “drouwt” or “drott.”
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2003, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/19 "2003-02-05T05:17:53Z")
I just keep on, keeping on. Whose to know.
😃 [sup]Ignorance is bliss.[/sup]
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [February 5, 2003, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-you-mispronounce-while-reading/152727/20 "2003-02-05T13:14:44Z")
Ditto on infrared and epitome.
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