How do you pronounce kilometer?

Bad Astronomy
By Phil Plait
Jul 14, 2008 2:37 AMOct 4, 2019 7:56 PM

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When I was in Canada, it was really cool to see everyone using the metric system. But what made me a little nuts was how everyone pronounced the word kilometer. Is it kil-AW-meter or KILL-o-meter?

I make my case for the latter in the video below. If you disagree with me, then I can state quite objectively and maturely that you are wrong wrong wrong.

When I was giving my first talk in Canada I actually mentioned this, and got a lot of applause from right-thinking people. The others were strangely (ominously?) silent. Perhaps they were tuning up their kill-o-meters.

Note: in the video I use the spelling decameter. I have seen it as dekameter as well, and in some dictionaries it says decameter is the old way to spell it. Well, maybe. I still like it, so I used it. If I can rant about pronunciation, I can rant about spelling, too.

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