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How to pronounce TeX

tool creator-clarified

tek /tɛk/ mp3

🎬 Hear it from the creator

Donald Knuth @ Stanford Engineering (37:02)

I wrote a paper called the Errors of TeX, which lists more than a thousand mistakes... Since we were talking about TeX, I based TeX on binary arithmetic inside.
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TeX is most commonly pronounced "tek" (/tɛk/). This pronunciation is documented by the project itself (see Wikipedia § Pronunciation).

Knuth: like "tech" — the X is a Greek chi.

Source: Wikipedia § Pronunciation

Pronouncing project and product names correctly avoids the small but persistent friction of being gently corrected during standups, conference Q&As, and team calls. Hearing the word a few times locks in the right reading better than reading IPA ever will. Pronounce is a community-maintained dictionary — every entry tagged with a confidence level and (where possible) a citable source.

How do you pronounce TeX?

TeX is pronounced "tek" (/tɛk/). Knuth: like "tech" — the X is a Greek chi. Source: Wikipedia § Pronunciation.

What is the IPA for TeX?

The IPA for TeX is /tɛk/, respelled "tek".

Hear it from the command line

$ say-it TeX # primary × 3 + audible "or: …" for each alternate
$ say-it --why TeX # print the dict entry with source URL

Install the CLI: curl -fsSL https://pronounce.renlab.ai/install.sh | bash

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