Re: Check out Definition of - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

[Guest guest]

Hi Maggie,

So I was about to start my work for today and said to myself to just go online for one minute to check my email. Safe enough, only one new post, yours. But, you made reference to my pronouncing of the words we love so much>>>>>>achalasia, dilatation, and dilation, and that there would actually be a voice to pronounce it for you! How could I resist that (plus to find out if all the hoopla accompanied with my posts, to see if I was actually correct).

I took the bait. Now that I have been formally educated as to the pronouncing of the disease I have been living with for 24 years, I am relieved to say that I have been pronouncing it correctly! (and that I did so on the message boards here).

Now some wise-gal person has elected me as the authority on pronunciations and asked the question about how to pronounce centimeters, that growing up we all learned it as the first syllable sounding like the word for the coin penny (i.e. cent), but hearing it later on as the first syllable in centimeter rhyming with the word "flaunt" thus "sauntimeter" or "sontimeter."

At first I thought, what does that have to do with achalasia, and is it purely off-topic (O/T). Of course I heard it pronounced both ways also. In high school it was like the penny, and in college it was like "sont." I even went to google, and it seemed as if they were laughing about it, generally saying that it is pronounced like "cent" but that the so-called more sophisticated people (like the British) liked the more sophisticated sound of "sontimeter."

Then it dawned on me (not our friend "Dawn") that it was a relevant word since we all go around comparing the diameter of our esophaguses using centimeters as the standard measurement. It is important that we pronounce it correctly!

Then Maggie, bless her soul, just provided us with a link to the dictionary that actually has a voice to pronounce the word for you.

I went to the link, clicked the horn icon, and out came the pronunciation. I was quite surprised.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/centimeter

PS: Party-on, Ann!

>> _Click here: Definition of achalasia - Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary_ > (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/achalasia) > > Can you guys stand one more? If you go to Merriam Webster> online dictionary there is a little horn by the side of the> main entry. Click on that and you can here how this version> pronounces it. Same thing for dilation and dilatation.> > Maggie> Alabama>

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

The British (both the sophisticated and those like me) pronounce "cent" in centimetres as "have I sent you round the bend yet?"

I have never in my life heard it pronounced sont.> >> > _Click here: Definition of achalasia - Merriam-Webster Online> Dictionary_> > (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/achalasia)> >> > Can you guys stand one more? If you go to Merriam Webster> > online dictionary there is a little horn by the side of the> > main entry. Click on that and you can here how this version> > pronounces it. Same thing for dilation and dilatation.> >> > Maggie> > Alabama> >>