# Words you thought you knew how to pronounce ...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-thought-you-knew-how-to-pronounce/70130>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 25, 2001, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-thought-you-knew-how-to-pronounce/70130 "2001-06-25T21:47:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-thought-you-knew-how-to-pronounce/70130/101 "2001-10-19T10:40:06Z")

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Since this word is Greek in [origin](http://www.word-detective.com/052301.html), it was originally pronounced with a ‘k’ sound instead of a ‘c’, so you were closer than you thought.

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**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-thought-you-knew-how-to-pronounce/70130/102 "2001-10-19T18:02:59Z")

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Even though this is listed as an alternate pronounciation in our dictionary, my mom looked at me funny the first time I said the word “renege” as “re-neige” (neige like the French word for snow, not as in rhyming with “beige”). Most people say “re-nig” but I could never bring myself to say that…same story with “segue” which I have always pronounced as “seeg”…nearly fell off my chair the first time I heard “seg-way”. I have to stop and think each time I say “khaki” because whenever I read it I said to myself as “cocky”.

A certain unnamed person in my family always pronounces “hover” as “hoover” and “English” as “Anglish”.

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**Author:** ![Yumanite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/b487fb/32.png) [@Yumanite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumanite)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2001, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-thought-you-knew-how-to-pronounce/70130/103 "2001-10-19T23:17:39Z")

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My most recent one was _behemoth_. Until last year, I thought it was pronounced BEE-a-moth. I was corrected at a party, in front of oodles of people, of course.

I don’t know why I didn’t figure it out sooner – be-HEE-moth sonds more like buhayma (sp), which is a related word, I think.

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**Author:** ![GlassGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@GlassGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GlassGirl)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2001, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-thought-you-knew-how-to-pronounce/70130/104 "2001-10-20T02:27:15Z")

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I have heard niche pronounced both as “nitch” and as “neesh” - which is correct? (was this covered previously and I was too lazy to read through all of the posts?)

In one of those goofy family things that you do with your loved ones but occasionally forget and say in front of “real” folks, my siblings and I, remembering the old “Ensign Pulver” movie, choose to pronounce buttocks as beau-tocks. Much repressed giggling usually follows.

I also have a brain problem with “graphy” words. I have to force myself to emphasize the correct syllables, and I get it right about 50% of the time. I have never met anyone else with this affliction. To suffer alone…

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