Learn English – word for words that people are more likely to have read than heard, thus don’t know how to pronounce

phrase-requestspronunciationsingle-word-requests

As a software guy I find myself using words like "idempotent" and "cache", which I'm very familiar with from technical writings, but have seldom heard being spoken.

When I do hear someone using these words I'm frequently surprised by their pronunciation, and have no idea which of us is correct, if either.

I'm not asking for guidance on how to pronounce these words, I just want to know if there is a word or phrase to describe them.

(And if it's an uncommon word, how would it be pronounced?)

Best Answer

In Judith Wynn Halsted's book Some of My Best Friends Are Books, a guide for teaching gifted readers, she references this phenomenon and calls it calley-ope syndrome (playing on how someone who has seen but not heard the word "calliope" would assume it was pronounced).

"Books that contain pronunciation guides are helpful for gifted readers (though they are rare, and a pleasant surprise when found), since so many avid readers know words only from reading and therefore mispronounce them. One excellent teacher of gifted high school students calls this 'The Calley-ope (calliope) Syndrome."

--Some of My Best Friends Are Books

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