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diesel DEE-zuul, not DEE-suul.

DEE-suul has been listed in most dictionaries since the 1960s, but is not preferred.
Diesel comes from Rudolph Diesel, a German automotive engineer. Webster 2 (1934), notes that in German the letter S is pronounced "like Engish S in rose at the beginning of a word...and before a vowel." We should follow this rule when we say diesel (DEE-zuul), for it breaks no rule of English nor ...

dew DYoo.

There is a tendency in American speech to change the YOO or logn U sound in many words to an OO sound (as in soon). We are in the process of dropping YOO/long U from such words as duty, assume, presume, attitude, aptitude, astute, nutrition, student, and the like. Directly following an initial S, the long U is rarely heard from Americans. We say SOOT for suit and SOOPER for super; the British say SYOOT...

despicable DES-pik-uh-buul. Now usually duh-SPIK-uh-buul.

DES-pik-uh-buul has been the preferred renunciation for a hundred years, and duh-SPIK-uh-buul was often labeled incorrect or erroneous until the 1960s, when it became unfashionable for dictionaries to use that sort of word. Despite the popularity of Duh-SPIK-uh-buul (perhaps owing in part to the slobbering cartoon character Daffy Duck's penchant for ...

depot DEE-poh.

Many authorities make the alternative DEP-oh (DEP-rhyming with step) as chiefly military and British. American usage has alway favoured DEE-poh (DEE- rhyming with see ), and it seems reasonable to use it for all the word's senses.

deluge (noun and verb) DEL-yooj.

This word takes a little practice to pronounce correctly. Difficulty with it has resulted in a DEL-yooj of variants, including DEL-yoozh, DEL-oozh, DEL,-ooj, de-LOOJ, and de-LOOZH. Most dictionaries do not list any pronunciation other that DEL-yooj, in which the first syllable is stressed and the second syllable sounds like the word huge wothout the H.

deity DEE-i-tee, not DAY-i-tee. See homogeneity, spontaneity.

decrease (noun) DEE-krees; (verb) de-KREES.

In words of two syllables,,.that do double duty as nouns or adjectives on the one Han and as verbs on the other, it is the custom, with a few exceptions, to accent the nouns and adjectives upon the first syllable and the vers upon the last.
-W.H.P. Phyfe, 18,000 Words Often Mispronounced.

Phyfe's rule, outlined in 1926, holds true today for many words.

decibel DES-i-=bel. Do not say DES-i-buul.

The bel in this word comes from Alexander Graham Bell. On ohm (named after George Simon Ohm) is never called an um, nor is a watt (named after James Watt) ever called a what. The legal of a man is at stake her. Remember that the E in the last syllable should be as clear as a bell.

data DAY-tuh, not DAT-uh.
All my sources prefer DAY-tuh. The alternative pronunciation DAT-uh has been recorded since the 1940s, but has always been listed second to DAY-tuh. Another variant, DAH_tuh, is sometimes listed third, it dates back tot he nineteenth century or perhaps earlier, and is less frequently heard today.
The reason data is pronounced DAY-tuh is because it was taken into English from Latin ...

dais DAY-is, not DY-is.
This word should be pronounced in two syllables, the first like the word day and the second like the word kiss without the K. Those who pronounce it Dy-is (with the first syllable like the word die) are wrong because they treat the A and I not as separate vowels to be sounded distinctly, but as a diphthong with a single sound, as in aisle. Then, in the second syllable they pronounce the...

daiquiri DY-kuh-ree.

This species of rum cocktail was named after Daiquiri, Cuba (Spanish pronunciation: dy-kee-REE), the town where it is said to have originated. The word entered English about 1920, but did not get into a dictionary until the 1950s. By then the alternative pronunciation DAK-uh-ree had caught on, and so from the start was listed in most dictionaries. However, of the sixteen sources I polled, ...

cupola KYOO-po-la.

KYOO-po-la is the only standard pronunciation of this word, which has proved to be quite a tongue twister for many speakers. There are two common mispronunciations to avoid: KYOO-pa-loh, which makes the word sound as if it were spelled cupola (with the A and O transposed), and KOO-pyoo-la, which makes it sound as if it were spelled coopula. These ways of saying cupola (KYOO-po--la) are not

culinary KYOO-li-ner-ee, not KUHL-i-ner-ee.

The first syllable of this word should sound just like the letter Q: KYOO-li-ner-ee.
Though it has been heard for most of this century, and is quite common today, the pronunciation KUHL-i-ner-ee did not appear in dictionaries until the 1960s. Since then only Miriam-Webster's wordbooks have put it first; all other sources prefer KYOO-li-ner-ee.

covert (adjective and noun) KUH-vurt.

The pronunciation KOH-vurt didn't see the light of dictionary until Webster 3 included it in 1961. From what I can gather it wasn't around very long before that. My conjecture is that it probably got started during the McCarthy era, when certain folks were worried about spies in the pumpkin patch and under the streets and needed an appropriately ugly and alarming way to...

coupon KOO-pahn.

The pronunciation KYOO-pahn is widespread, and used by many others=wise conscientious speakers—Vincent Price, for example. .Neither analogy nor spelling, however, justifies it. We do not say byoo-TEEK for boutique, TYOOR-nuh-kit for tourniquet, or uh-KYOO=tur for accoutre, or insert a Y before the OO sound in nouveau riche, coup d'état, and haute couture. Why say KYOO-pahn?

controversial kahn-truh-VER-shuul. Do not say kahn-true-VUR-see-al.

In the last few years, the broadcast media have suddenly and almost universally adopted the pronunciation kay-truh-VUR-see-al ( sometimes kahn-true-VUR-shee-al), and much of the public has copied their poor example,
The NBC Handook (1984) is not the culprit; it gives only kahn-truh-VUR-shuul, as do Webster's New World(1984) and Random House II...

contemplative kun-TEMP-luh-tiv, no KAHN-tem-play-tiv.

consummate (adjective) kun-SUHM-it, not KAHN-suh-mit.

The adjective is pronounced kun-SUHM-it, the verb is pronounced KAHN-suh-mayt.

consortium kun-SOR-shee-um, not kun-SOR-tee-um.

Also, do not say kun-SOR-shum. The word should have four syllables.
The paramount issue here is whether the TI in consortium should be pronounced like SH in sheep or like the word tea. The answer is that to do the latter is to be guilty not one of spelling pronunciation (see Apendix) but also of vogue pronunciation. Vogue pronunciations—to borrow a phrase or two ...

comparable KAHM-pur-uh-buul, not chum-PAIR-uh-buul.
The stress is properly on the first syllable—but watch out: Don not say KAHM-pruh-buul. Comparable should have four clearly articulated syllables. KAHM-pur-uh-buul. See admirable, formidable, irreparable, reparable,

combatant kom-BAT-int.

The pronunciation KAHM-buh-tint, once preferred by American dictionaries, is now chiefly British.

conch KAHNGK, not KAHNCH.

Conch, a large spiral seashell should rhyme with honk. The plural is conchs (KAHNGKS) or conches (KAHN-chiz).

comparable KAHM-pur-uh-buul, not chum-PAIR-uh-buul.

the stress is properly on the first syllable—but watch out.: Do not say KAHM-pruh-buul. Comparable should have four clearly articulated syllables: KAHM-0pur-uh-buul. See admirable, formidable, irreparable, reparable.

collation huh-LAY-shin or nah-LAY-shin.

Preference is about evenly divided between these two pronunciations for collation, which may mean either a light meal, snack, or the act or process of collating (duh-LAY-ting). Avoid the pronunciation Koh-LAY-shin, in which the first syllable has the long O of cola. It is listed by some current dictionaries but is not preferred. See collate.

collate kuh-LAYT or kah-LAYT.

The first syllable of collate is unstressed, and therefore pronounced with a schwa or obscure vowel sound, as it is in similar words beginning with coll-: collect, collide, collapse, collision, collaborate, collateral, and so on. This is the preference of nearly all authorities, past and present.
Also acceptable, though not preferred, is the pronunciation kah-LAYT. Here the first

colander KUHL-an-dur, not KAHL-an-dur.

The first syllable (col-) rhymes with dull, not doll.
this word cane into the language in 1440. Like many early English words, it was spelled in a variety of strange ways over the years. By the end of the nineteenth century the field had narrowed to two standard spellings, colander and cullender. After another half-century of duking it out, colander won the preferred ...

coitus KOH-i-tus.

This word is very often mispronounced. The problem comes from not knowing where to put the stress, and those who shift not to the second syllable are then unsure how to pronounce the I. This insecurity can produces some astonishing results—I have heard Koh-EYE-tus, Koh-AY-tus, and COY-tus, all of which may be in the Kamasutra but are not, to my knowledge, in any dictionary. Several current...

clique KLEEK, not KLK>

This word should rhyme with seek, not slick. See cliché.

Agricola, Georgius
A 16th-century German scholar and writer on mining and metallurgical practice who based his work to a degree unprecedented in his time on observation and inquiry in the field, Agricola has been called the father of mineralogy. While a highly trained classicist and humanist, well regarded by scholars of his own and later times, he was yet singularly independent of the theories of ancient ...

cliché Klee-SHAy, not kli-SHAy.

Careful speakers preserve the KLEE (rhymes with see) sound of the first syllable. See clique,