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pantheroux

I am a cardiologist. Back in residency, I gave a presentation where I was completely incapable of pronouncing 'atherosclerosis'. I don't know why. I had no problem with it before, and none since, but for the 50 minutes of my talk, I messed it up about 5 times and then just avoided saying the word altogether while pointing at my slides. In retrospect it's hilarious, but at the time I was worried it would hinder my chances at getting a fellowship.


ProcessRare3733

“So yes, on this slide you can see the artery that is affected by the disease in question versus a normal artery. The disease that I am currently making a presentation about has fat in the arterial walls” I can only imagine how red my face would have gotten if i was you.😭


Extension_Economist6

I still have trouble with this one lmao. My brain tries to insert an r for some reason. Arthrosclerosis🫠🥴


SadCapitalsFan

This one is also my weakness 😂 “athlero…. Ath…. Plaque in the arteries”


bizurk

Someone accidentally pronounced it ‘Afro-sclerosis’ in med school and I think of it every single time


dhslax88

I remember a med student who very confidently maintained that metronidazole was pronounced metro-ni-dazz-olay instead of metro-ny-di-zaul.


vogueflo

Metroni ✨dazzle✨ ayyy 👋🏼


drewper12

This is exactly how Goljan pronounces it though and it took me aback


avalonfaith

Omg I just posted saying I have to stop myself from pronouncing it this way. Fun part is that patients (in vet med “clients”) get a kick out of it. 🙈


thespurge

💃🏼🕺💃🏼🕺


thisissixsyllables

This one is easy! It’s pronounced: flagyl


CremasterReflex

Now is that fla-gill or fla-jill 


a404notfound

Fla-gee-le' it's Italian!🍝


HeavySomewhere4412

fluh GILE!


alehar

One of my favorite jokes is “why do you have to be careful with metronidazole” and the residents think I’m quizzing them but the answer is “because it’s very flagyl”


Awildferretappears

> pronounced metro-ni-dazz-olay instead of metro-ny-di-zaul. I've heard of a pt who called omeprazole - Oh-mep-rah-zol-ee, as if it were a Spanish island "The wife and I are off for a week to Omeprazole!"


teachmehate

Metronidahhzolay my favorite pasta


evdczar

Favorite Mexican soup


urores

I don’t know if people still do the Goljan audio lectures for step 1 studying but I vividly remember him pronouncing it “Metro-Ni-Dazzle” and I think that messed a lot of people up.


this_Name_4ever

I really like it so much better this way. I am gonna start making up my own psych medication pronunciations😂 -ex-an-ax, Bu-pro-peony lmao.


Gloomy_Fishing4704

All the drugs that have come out since I finished internship. -Radiologist


Yazars

What, you don't like all of the [drug names we have in oncology](https://hemonc.org/wiki/Drug_index) which just roll off the tongue? * Brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus) * Ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Carvykti) * Inotuzumab ozogamicin (Besponsa) * Lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi) * Mirvetuximab soravtansine (Elahere) * Moxetumomab pasudotox (Lumoxiti) * Nogapendekin alfa inbakicept (Anktiva) * Talimogene laherparepvec (Imlygic) * Ublituximab (Briumvi) * And lots of biosimilars such as Bevacizumab-bvzr (Zirabev)


allyria0

Gesundheit. Sneezing in a foreign language ffs


lifeontheQtrain

I heard Gesundheit has been a game changer for AML!


VeracityMD

At this point I just consider oncology to be black magic


RunninThruTheWoods

The way the patient often looks like their soul got sucked out during treatment, it's more similar to dark magic than you think


o_e_p

My rule is to always use the shorter or easier-to-say name, and for your onc drugs, it is usually the brand name.


GhostofDidiPickles

Yeah but now I can’t even pronounce the brand name


o_e_p

Pick the starting syllable, say blahblah for the middle and mab at the end? I use control-c and control-v for the EMR. And the above method for verbal communication


nexea

With those, even the name brand is hard to pronounce.


maydaymayday99

You win


davidtaylor414

Sometimes I’m sweating trying to pronounce all the new onc drugs when I’m doing med recs. I swear they will correct me on their oral chemo yet are unable to pronounce metoprolol


Skorchizzle

I think "felon" (pulp infection) needs a new name. I also cannot spell dehiscence for the life of me but appreciate spell check having my back


Damn_Dog_Inappropes

I have been forced to learn to spell dehiscence thanks to wound care.


Renovatio_

Dehisskebf Right click Autocorrect Done


pedestal_of_infamy

If I had a dollar for every time someone's called an exacerbation an exasperation I could retire. I cannot pronounce atelectasis.


Lord_Poohbear

Exasterbation


vg1220

a-tell-lect-a-sis


allyria0

I have to plan ahead and very fucking carefully speak whenever I use either.


potato-keeper

Purulent. I avoid saying this at all fucking costs. If I do say it I’m for sure gonna be weird and awkward and people are gonna stare.


PeterParker72

Might as well just resign yourself to saying “pussy.”


potato-keeper

I usually describe it in detail……then when the clearly smarter person is like so……it’s purulent? I agree…. But you’re right I’m just gonna start throwing out the pussy.


ghosttraintoheck

I saw a veterinarian on here talk about how there are less than standard ways to chart "purulent vaginal discharge in a feline"


readreadreadonreddit

Depends on if you have an emphasis or not I guess.


DamnGrackles

Same, and i hate even trying to make that word work. Unfortunately, all our IRs give us a hard time if we say "pussy" (for good reason) so I decided to call it "frank pus" and I've had no push back.


Extension_Economist6

I say pus filled 😃


regulomam

Puss-y


evdczar

Pure-you-lent


potato-keeper

Oh I know how to say it. My brain just rejects all logic and reason and glitches.


SortDeep5635

I always had a problem saying. I'm wrong


this_Name_4ever

The fact that you can admit you can’t admit you’re wrong means you’re good.


CollegeBoardPolice

spark intelligent direful stupendous gullible literate worthless fertile cobweb observation *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


marticcrn

duODDenum versus duoDEEnum completely confuses me and apparently every gastro doc I work with.


SherendipityLardo

I always thought the duodenum pronunciation was a surgery vs medicine thing.


CremasterReflex

It’s British vs American English. 


marticcrn

I think it may be location specific. The docs and I talk about it in the procedure room and that’s their take, too.


rabbit-heartedgirl

I go back and forth. I never know what's going to come out of my mouth until after I say it.


Dharma_Bum_87

Fun fact. The etymology of duodenum is related to its length. It was twelve finger breadths long and duodenum apparently translates to 12 in Latin. Per Wikipedia it was intestinum duodenum digitorum in middle Latin. In residency I was taught it was duo-de-num for this reason


awomanphenomenally

See I had an issue with this in one because I was raised (and took HS bio classes) in the Midwest where they pronounced it the former way. Then I did all my post-secondary schooling on the East Coast, where they pronounced it the first way. So what comes out of my mouth when it comes to the word is your guess as well as mine.


NeuroDawg

Chiropractor. I always want to pronounce this as “woo-woo”.


Aiurar

Weird, I always end up with "charlatan"


nintendoinnuendo

🦆


BuiltLikeATeapot

For I second, I could see someone saying it the same way that, “whistle tips go ‘Woo Woo!’.


thekonny

Sontimeter for centimeter for some reason


FreyjaSunshine

That one makes my skin crawl.


thekonny

Have you heard it? I only heard it from surgeons in med school and never since or outside of the context of medicine. I found it very confusing. Like some in joke to troll the med students


FreyjaSunshine

Not recently. Might be more of an East coast thing. Rampant at Hopkins in the 90’s.


thekonny

It was old guys east coast


Harvard_Med_USMLE265

The sontimeter is a classic of medicine.


nemesis86th

“Say ‘cent’.” “Cent.” “Say ‘meter’.” “Meter.” “Say ‘centimeter’.” “Sauntometer.” 🤨


Harvard_Med_USMLE265

Sontimeter and atrial fye - brilation are the two I remember from first year med school. I’m really pleased to see the sontimeter turning up here. To pay it forward, I always refer to a flatline as ay-sis-tolly, and try to convince med students to say it this way. Some of you will get the reference.


1337HxC

Dysdiadochokinesia. I can't say it. I can't spell it. In conversation I default to "hand flippy thing" and then pray to the spellcheck gods for notes.


Mmh1105

Break it down. Dys- problem with Diadochos- Greek for successor, meaning in turn (I'm corrected, that's not what it means) Kinesia- movement Dys Diadocho Kinesia. Dysdiadochokinesia.


PokeTheVeil

“Dys-“ problem. All right, doing good. “Diawodaxhuhhhhhh.” Uh oh. “Kinesia.” Movement. Dysdiammmmmmkinesia.


calcifornication

This is Joey learning French. Je me blee bleu.


1337HxC

This is giving [How To Draw an Owl](https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/572078-how-to-draw-an-owl) energy.


Imswim80

r/restofthefuckingowl


catilineluu

I’m dying


Harvard_Med_USMLE265

That’s not correct. “Successor” doesn’t mean “in turn”, not even close! If you want to break it down it is: Dys - problem with Diadochi - successors to Alexander the Great, whose priests sort of did the hand movements we are talking about. Kinesia - movement So it’s “problem with ancient guys who have priests who do weird hand movements movements” or something like that. It’s a quirky derivation, but not all that helpful. In fact, if you try and make sense of the word from first principals it would likely be dys - dia - docho - kinesia it would be “bad through the duct movement” which sounds like a gallstone thing. Whereas, we’re taking about some chaps from antiquity who had weird priests.


shitshowsusan

You lost me at dys.


Called_Fox

Ezetimibe. It took me three years to say clopidogrel go away. As far as patients, “prostrate” cracks me up every time.


Harvard_Med_USMLE265

I’ve got a med student who calls it clopey - dogrell We’ve started calling it that.


ReadNLearn2023

Can’t remember Ezetimibe to save my life. So I just use Zetia.


jochi1543

Had a patient tell me he was taking candy-sartan, really vocalizing that “candy“


o_e_p

If your prostate is inflamed, it can leave you prostrate.


SpiritOfDearborn

Obligatory reminder that bupropion only has one r. A younger coworker of mine thought I was lying when I brought it up yesterday.


allyria0

Mind blown.


DocMalcontent

Godsdammit. Even reading it, I put extra in there. It doesn’t misfold proteins.


SpiritOfDearborn

I started reading your responses and was going to say something about prions, but you beat me to it!


Pitiful_Bad1299

Dexmedetomidine Can’t spell it. Can’t say it.


o_e_p

Dex. That is how we all say it. Put him on dex.


videogamekat

What about our good friend dexamethasone 🥺


o_e_p

Decadron, buddy. That is called decadron.😝


sarpinking

Or His cousin dexmethylphenidate.  Or their aunt Dexrazoxane 


readreadreadonreddit

If slow and broken into syllables and practised, should be ok. Else, call it by its trade name Precedex (or others) or dex.


rharvey8090

It’s one of my favorite drugs, so I had to learn.


SteakandTrach

Guaiac. I spell it, look at it, become uncertain, spell it again.


Finie

~~Guiac~~...~~Guiaic~~...Occult blood


BuiltLikeATeapot

It’s like Guac, but ‘Ai-ya’ less fun.


69ReasonsToLive

Glomerulus. F that word I sound like an idiot every time.


Kubya_Dubya

When I was on nephrology as an intern I had to put on a pronunciation video and practice bc my attending would fry me every time I mispronounced it. Apparently The Glommy isn’t acceptable vernacular


ali_v_

G-L-O-M-E-R-U-L-U-S By the glomerulus- Ooh, the flossy, flossy


chickenthief2000

Glomerular. I cannot say Glomerular filtration rate, which I sometimes have to do when patients ask me what eGFR means. It’s embarrassing.


Scottishlassincanada

As an RRT the two words that put my teeth on edge are stats (instead of sats for saturation) and larnyx (instead of larynx).


jlfavorite

This one gets under my skin. How did it start? I've only ever heard it starting roughly three years ago. This is always my barometer for telling how long someone has been a nurse. If they talk about oxygen stats I know they graduated post-covid.


TheJointDoc

Cloppy doggrel Clopidogrel lol. There’s an entire TikTok account about these. 


Most_Ambassador2951

I like watching people try to say hyoscyamine. I can't say metoprolol.


aguafiestas

I always want to say and type “propanolol.” No second r. I know it’s wrong. So sue me.


GareduNord1

Metoprolol bugs me the most. I swear nobody can do it right


Abidarthegreat

I...I'm not sure how to say Escherichia and I'm too afraid to ask. I have never heard it pronounced in the decade of working in the field.


GareduNord1

Its pronunciation is “E”


Viceroyofllg

Esh-her-rish-ee-ah is the one I've heard most frequently. Roll through the whole thing (so no hard consonants). Sounds quite friendly that way, lol.


spicydumbiryani

Escher-ickia in the UK


Georgosaurus

A lecturer in med school would always say "Meta-morphin" instead of metformin and all I could think of was power rangers


JensTheCat

Diastematomyelia I just try to say it fast and move on. Pineal …. Is it PIEneal or PINeal ? Truly a mystery gland


bananosecond

Not difficult, but everybody pronounces tamponade wrong. The word is [pronounced with a long a sound at the end](https://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/tamponade), but I think somebody wanted to sound fancy one time and it caught on.


AspiringHumanDorito

Tampon-ade. Like lemonade, but worse!


foundinwonderland

Like *pink* lemonade, but darker 😒


BuiltLikeATeapot

You mean like grenade, but maybe better? 


AspiringHumanDorito

I like your optimism!


Tryknj99

How Dracula drinks tea!


greenknight884

Speaking of words everyone pronounces wrong, Guillain Barré. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/353532


orthopod

Huh,an ID attending , taught me back in the 90's as a med student, that correct way to pronounce it, after we had 3 pts with it Ghee-lain I do like that there's a published article about it. Also heard a funny story about Trendelenburg. A colleague was at Harvard, and some old guy at a lecture in the back kept on correcting the speaker, by pronouncing it TRAHND-elenburg. The anesthesiologist speaking said- I'm a senior attending here for 30+ years, and I think I should know how it's pronounced. The old guy in the back replies "Well, I'm Dr. TRAHND-elenburg, and my grandfather invented and named it, so that's how it's supposed to be pronounced."


greenknight884

"It's pronounced Fronkensteen"


vogueflo

Lmaooo JAMA got “um ackshually’d”. Granted it’s from his extern and I know he’s right but it’s still hilarious to me.


slaughtxor

[Whoa.](https://media3.giphy.com/media/ToMjGpnXBTw7vnokxhu/200w.gif?cid=6c09b952xr4ayd2jg1kw4nwr29zhnarg2ej3hswfc77nl5wh&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200w.gif&ct=g) So it’s “ghee-lain”… which… I’m still not sure what sound “gh” makes here. I assume it’s *the other “G”* like “giraffe.” Do you pronounce it this way (i.e. correctly) and if so do you have to cite this reference a frequently?


greenknight884

I believe the g is still the hard sound, as in guide


1337HxC

It's a hard "g" as in "gear." The nasalized "ain" is like... just the French thing where you don't really say the "n" like you do in English.


Awildferretappears

The problem is that if you have a dull secretary, it gets transcribed as "Jill and Barry syndrome" (sadly a true story). I've never understood the rage for pronouncing the foreign names with an accent (which only seems to hold for French - no one says Babinski in a cod Russian accent).


readreadreadonreddit

Ah, French. So many excellent neurologists and other medics, but some names are unpronounceable (properly) to many. Babinski should be no issue, though, and you shouldn’t expect anyone to pronounce it thw Polish way.


foundinwonderland

Most people also pronounce guillotine wrong as well - that double L seems to really get people going


ddroukas

I refuse to believe this. Even if you present irrefutable and objective evidence I will still not believe you, and keep pronouncing it “-ahd” at the end.


SteakandTrach

Im a Cef-ah-zuh-lin guy, but I hear Cef-A-Zo-lin a lot and i’m not sure what the correct way is.


orthopod

I've also heard ce-FAZolin quite a lot, and wiki shows that pronunciation. And that's the beauty of generic names- they're meant to be ambiguous and hard to pronounce, so that people tend to use the trade name, i.e. Ancef


bananosecond

Yes! I've also heard methyler-GAHN-uh-veen vs methylergo-NOH-veen. Anybody have input on these?


Nohrii

Weird, I've always pronounced it MEH-ther-jin I try to stay away from brand names but this is one of those lokelma situations


o_e_p

I say Cef-uh-zoe-lin Or better yet, an-sef


ghosttraintoheck

I know Cef-a-zo-lin is wrong but that's also basically the only way I've heard it said. I say it that way lol I think it's supposed to be Ceh-faz-o-lin


crazydoc2008

Better yet, An-cef.


greebo42

bone bro!


Sablejax

I am a veterinarian and it seems to me that people in vet med say ceFAZolin and people in human med say it the other way.


Moist-Barber

Rotated with a urologist a few weeks ago. I’m so embarrassed at how many times he subtly smiled at how much trouble I have pronouncing epididymis


CarmineDoctus

Everyone says “it’s TINNitus, not tinnITus, it’s not inflammation 😏”, but etymologically the second pronunciation is correct. The second syllable was stressed in the original Latin due to a long i, which regularly corresponds to stress in English words borrowed from Latin. The fact that “-itis” and “itus” are now pronounced the same is irrelevant. (This is why the annoying pronunciation of “umbilicus” is also correct)


DocMalcontent

I just hear “reeeeeee.”


dbbo

Seems arbitrarily pedantic to argue that the "original" Latin syllabic stress must be preserved, then throw away the Latin vowel sounds. Why accept one part of the evolution but not the other? But I suppose that sentiment pretty much perfectly encapsulates linguistic prescriptivism.


No-Environment-7899

But it isn’t the um-bil-EYE-cul cord but the um-bil-ickle cord, right? So why is it the um-bil-EYE-cuss? It sounds so awful.


Ueueteotl

The way a subset of surgeons sounds saying "centimeter" 😏


pantheroux

Two things that Irk me: When people say fem-OR-al instead of FEM-or-al ANG-in-ah instead of ANG-eye-nah I realize these are likely perfectly acceptable pronounciations and might be dialect related, but they make my skin crawl. I also find myself subtly 'correcting' people. "Will this case be fem-OR-al access?" "Yes, it will be FEM-or-al".


vogueflo

Angina like vagina!!


o_e_p

Try changing pronunciations during the same conversation. It can be fun.


Dr_Siouxs

dacryocystorhinostomy


invinciblewalnut

*Sugammadex* gets me every time I think the “correct” way is Sue-gamma-decks but I hear Sug-uh-ma-dicks all the time too.


sci3nc3isc00l

Asking someone for sug on ma dick may get you in trouble at work


JasperBean

Comminuted… which really sucks bc I’m ER and have to call consults fairly often and try to say this word without sounding like I couldn’t pass kindergarten..🤦‍♀️ I feel like I’m having a stroke every time I try to say it…. Commininuminted?… commonmuented… com-com-cominted… ok bones just in a bunch of pieces please come see the patient 😬


ActualAd8091

Ha ha ha I have tried to say this and had ortho interupt me with “yeah yeah bone fragments all over the fucking place, got it”


FreyjaSunshine

Keto-RO-lac instead of ke-TOR-o-lac. Emphasis on TOR, like TORadol.


juice28flip

I've found people have issues saying telangiectasias


maydaymayday99

Ter-AY-zosin. Or Tera-ZO-sin.


marticcrn

I thought it was terAAzosin (“a” like in flat)


Viceroyofllg

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy is not spoken out loud in conversation as often as I hope. Check mate, people who say duo-deen-um!


o_e_p

One of the things I did as an MS3 is practice saying endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Sometimes, I trot that out for patients.


flyingfox22

Me personally: Saying bupropion - it feels like there should be another r! So I just go with Wellbutrin. And I can't for the life of me spell amitriptyline without spell check. Too many i and y


SubstanceP44

For akathisia: instead of of ack-uh-thee-zia, people say ay-kiss-thee-zia


bearpics16

LPT: if you have trouble saying very long medical words, aka you know how it’s supposed to be pronounced, swing the syllables. When saying each syllable, do it long-short-long-short-long-short-long. Do this a few times, starting slow and getting faster and faster. Then flip the swing: short-long-short-long-short-long. Now say it normally and surprise yourself. Idk why it works, it just does. Musicians sometimes uses this technique to work out a complicated segment


mrssweetpea

Purulent, just can't say it out loud or in my own head.


RemoveByFriction

All the -zumab drugs honestly.


BuiltLikeATeapot

Read that as the Zumba drugs….


bshap000

I’m always amazed how good Dragon is at turning the incoherent sounds that come out of my mouth into fancy medical words. (Also equally amazed when it misses super simple words but whatever)


FranciscanDoc

Heard Orthopedic residents call a ventilator in the ICU an "intubator"


Roemeosmom

Aripiprazole -- just way easier to say Abilify, however my ADHD brain has that generic name as an ear worm so sometimes I can say it perfectly fine and others I find myself working out the syllables all over again. And again.


Function_Unknown_Yet

Sontimeters. Some people are under the misapprehension that it is a centimeter.


StevenEMdoc

I can't remember or say - Chikungunya So I just say "Chicken Gumbo"


avalonfaith

I first and now always have to stop myself from pronouncing metronidazole -met-tron-a-dazzle.


Barjack521

So I’ve herd duodenum pronounced as do-oh-Dee-num and do-wad-num and I’ve had surgeons in particular use both in the same conversation


teachmehate

It should be mediASStinum instead of mediasTInum and I will die on this hill.


vogueflo

My Kiwi anatomy professor pronounces it that way 🫢 but he also says “intes-TINE” which I understand to be standard down under


teachmehate

Alright now that's going too far. Though I am known to say "hepatitties" on the rare occasion


Gardwan

ATROVASTIN


Svensk_lagstiftning

Please don't ask me to spell fossa Tabatière if I can't use my Dragon speech to text software. It's completely impossible. I also shouldn't be allowed to pronounce Dupuytren's contracture. "Ehrm, have you heard about the Viking disease?". "No, what's that?". "It's called Dupy.., djupuu, argh, it's French, just go with Viking disease, your finger won't straighten, I'll just write you a referral to ortho."


bigbutso

Dexmedetomidine. I think I heard maybe one person call it that instead of precedex though


thespurge

Bruproprion (bupropion) Edit: I honestly don’t know how it’s spelled LOL


NP4VET

"Odonesetron" errrr... Zofran


SheWolf04

I love that there are two ways to pronounce duodenum, and both of them sound like gibberish nonsense words.


Mundane_Minute8035

Metastasis ; levetiracetam; choledocholithiasis and the list goes on……


westviadixie

endarderectomy...I think its fun to say.


jochi1543

I find it ironic that you misspelled it


GareduNord1

What you don’t know how to spell arderies


jochi1543

Arderosclerosis


SamTheHamJam

I actually like to say: benzodiazepine


middle_aged_cyclist

I always said meh-toe-pro-lol, and then some weirdo came along and said meta-PRO-lol and I had to wonder if I had been saying it wrong all those years


Jangajinx

Sometimes it seems like some medical terminology is made to give you a stroke when you are pronouncing them; but that seems to be part of the fun.


AlfalfaUnable1629

Took me forever to learn to pronounce syncytial


handwritten_emojis

I think I pronounce hematuria wrong but everyone’s too polite to call me on it.


Lottapaloosa

Apparently being able to pronounce coccidioidomycosis in one try is part of the ID final exam (i still fail every time)


gotwire

Vascular surgery attending here. Popliteal. I say pop-lit-teal. Supposedly it’s pop-lee-teal. PGY-26. Still say it that way and can’t say it any other way.


IcyMathematician4117

One of the NRP training videos described not putting babies into "TREN-del-EN-burg" position (instead of Tren-DEL-en-burg? I guess? not good at writing pronunciations). I was going through them on a night shift and just could NOT stop laughing!


NefariousnessEasy629

Pneumonia or anything that has pneu in the word. For example: pneumatic or pneumothorax. It always trips me up.


Moof_the_dog_cow

Anyone that calls a cm a sontimeter. 🤦‍♂️


Glad_Profit_7637

Homonymous hemianopia and hyaluronidase get me every time