Today I thought I misprounounced a word and was quite embarrassed.  Have you ever done that?  Reading is great, but sometimes I'm too lazy to check if I'm pronouncing words correctly in my head when they're not used commonly in speech and this has gotten me in trouble before.  In fact, my dear children will never let me live down an incident that occurred TWO years ago. 

We were using an SAT vocabulary prep book to practice spelling and I came to the word cacophony.   I had pronounced it in my head for YEARS as ca (like cat) co (rhymes with no) phoney.   When I pronounced the word the first time, my children all looked at me with very puzzled expressions.  I  said the word in a sentence and pronounced it again and Joshua started howling.  He finally calmed down enough to tell me it was ca (like cat) cough any.  Well, I had to go check the online dictionary and sure enough, he was correct.  The little twerp prefers audio books AND has an awesome vocabulary, so I have to watch what I say around him. 

Back to today.  Something similar happened when I was out and about.  I used the word niche in a sentence, something about finding my niche.  I always pronounced it like it rhymes with ditch.  The person I was talking to said the word in a sentence a few seconds later, only she pronounced it neesh.  I thought I had blown it again!

I looked it up and to my relief it appears you can pronounce it any way you want!  I like words like that.

Niche

1. a: a recess in a wall especially for a statue b: something that resembles a niche

2. a: a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted niche>

    b: a habitat supplying the factors necessary for the existence of an organism or species

   c: the ecological role of an organism in a community especially in regard to food consumption

   d: a specialized market

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If you want to hear a professional pronounce this word, go here:

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Niche

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And for cacophony, go here.

So, what words have you blown?