Definition of "pronounce"

pronounce

/pɹəˈnaʊns/

verb
third-person singular simple present pronounces, present participle pronouncing, simple past and past participle pronounced
1. (transitive) To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously.
  Quotations
  Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […] , down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.
  1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
2. (transitive) To declare authoritatively, or as a formal expert opinion.
  Quotations
  See there! A son is bornAnd we pronounce him fit to fightThere are blackheads on his shouldersAnd he pees himself in the night.
  1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull
  Paramedics attended, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
  2020 December 16, Paul Clifton, “Investigation begins after death at Eastleigh depot”, in Rail, page 12
  1. (transitive) To pronounce dead.
    Quotations
    Despite resuscitative efforts, Mr. Gray was pronounced on 4/19/2015.
    2015, April 30, Carol H. Allan, David R. Fowler (medical examiners), Freddie Gray autopsy: excerpt from the report, published in The Baltimore Sun, June 24, 2015
3. (intransitive) To pass judgment.
4. (transitive) To sound out (a word or phrase); to articulate.
  Quotations
  They spell it "Vinci" and pronounce it "Vinchy". Foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.
  1869, Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, page 182
  I wanted to look up velleity and quotidian and memorize the fuckers for all time, spell them, learn them, pronounce them syllable by syllable—vocalize, phonate, utter the sounds, say the words for all they're worth.
  2007, Don DeLillo, Underworld: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Scribner Classics, page 543
  1. (in passive) To sound like.
    Quotations
    The Chinese believe feng shui, pronounced fung shway, can help blunt the ill effects to health and wealth brought on, for example, by the inauspicious jut of an adjacent building or hill.
    1997 January 31, Charles Hutzler, “Leader’s office hunt a lesson in arcana and parking problems”, in AP News‎, archived from the original on 2023-04-19‎
    The DPRK (Joseon Minjujui Inmin Konghuaguk 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國) is read in Chinese as Chaoxian minzhu zhuyi renmin gonghe guo, and its capital, Pyeonyang, is pronounced Pingrang 平壤.
    2012, Endymion Wilkinson, “Introduction”, in Chinese History: A New Manual‎, 3rd revised edition, Harvard University Press, page 14
5. (intransitive) To produce the components of speech.
6. (transitive) To read aloud.

Definition of "pronounce"

pronounce

verb

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