Can You Correctly Pronounce These Tricky Words?

Maybe you know that victuals are supplies of food, that chicanery is deception, and that a skein is a coiled length of yarn. But do you know how to pronounce victuals, chicanery, and skein?

The quiz below tests your knowledge of those and other tricky pronunciations from various corners of the English language. Many entries are misles: terms whose spelling leaves room for confusion. Some words lend themselves to oral errors simply because they remind us of other (often more common) words, so we end up applying the wrong pronunciation rules to them.

Since language is always evolving, widespread mispronunciations are often considered acceptable. But if you want to ace this quiz, go with whatever pronunciation you think is currently listed first in the dictionary—not the nonstandard option that might someday be labeled correct.

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