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For as long as I've known, I and everyone I've encountered pronounces BIOS as bi-Ohs. Since listening to the Stackoverflow podcast I'm still surprised to hear Jeff say bi-Ahs. Just when I thought it was an Atwoodism, Michael Pryor made the same enunciation on episode 51.

Right or wrong, how is it more commonly pronounced?

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Wow, it's never even occurred to me that there might be another pronunciation besides bi-Ahs. I guess I've never heard anyone say bi-Ohs before. – mmyers May 13 '09 at 16:56
I pronounce it "pro-nun-see-ae-shun-not-zee" – Adam Davis May 13 '09 at 18:11
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closed as off topic by sysadmin1138♦ Feb 4 at 13:26

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10 Answers

up vote 31 down vote accepted

I pronounce it bi-Ohs (bī'ōs)

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Winner by popular vote. – spoulson Jun 4 '09 at 19:20
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up vote 5 down vote

In German (my native language) I pronounce it BEE-os, in English I pronounce it By-os.

In any case, with an O-sound.

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up vote 2 down vote

In Italy we pronounce it be-ohs, and I believe that every language has it's own pronunciation of english acronyms.
:-)

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up vote 2 down vote

Generally when I use an acronym, I use the same sound for a letter that I would have used in the word it replaced. Since the word is Output, I say bi-Ohs.

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It is good to say generally, as many use this argument as a certain rule. Then we'd have oddities like: CAPTCHA - Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. C-ah-p-t-ck-h-uh – davebug May 13 '09 at 16:43
@Zoredache: Do you pronounce laser "lasser" then? – mmyers May 13 '09 at 16:56
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up vote 2 down vote

We pronounce it "Throatwobbler Mangrove."

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Despite the fact that it's spelled "Raymond Luxury Yacht." – Electrons_Ahoy May 13 '09 at 23:52
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up vote 1 down vote

Where I live, bi-Ahs is the common pronunciation.

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up vote 0 down vote

I've heard both regularly for decades. Probably, regional dialects help select one of the two pronunciations, which may be why you haven't heard anything other than the way you say it. (Which is how I say it.)

Think of it like the word "data" which can be pronounced day-tuh or dah-tuh.

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up vote 0 down vote

In my travels around the USA I have always heard BĪŌS (BY-OHS). As far as pronunciation of acronyms go I generally follow the same rule that Zoredache described in his comment.

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up vote 0 down vote

eheh we in Italy forget that "I" is pronounced "ay" and thus say bee-ohs. but I guess it's not so authoritative...:)

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up vote -1 down vote

For me, neither. BIOS is an acronym. I pronounce it as B I O S (as spelling it). It means "Basic Input/Output System". Related, I also pronounce SQL as S Q L, for the same reason. Really, I kid you not :-)

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Well, Wikipedia says you are at least 50% right... – kubanczyk Jun 22 '09 at 22:41
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How do you pronounce WYSIWYG? – Tom O'Connor Jan 9 at 13:24
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