How to Pronounce Plague Pneumonia

Say it like this: PLAYG noo-MOH-nyah. The first word rhymes with "cage," and the second word starts with "noo" (like the word "new"), then "MOH" (rhymes with "go"), and ends with "nyah." The stress falls on the second syllable of pneumonia: noo-MOH-nyah.

Many people stress the wrong syllable in pneumonia and say noo-moh-NYE-uh instead of noo-MOH-nyah. Also, some people mispronounce the "pn" at the start of pneumonia—just say "n" and skip the "p" sound, so it sounds like noo- not pnoo-.

The phrase has 4 syllables total: one in "plague" (PLAYG) and three in "pneumonia" (noo-MOH-nyah). If you say each part separately first, it's easier to put them together smoothly.

"Plague" is a serious infectious disease that spreads quickly through populations. In everyday language, people sometimes use "plague" to describe any widespread disaster or problem, like "a plague of locusts," but in medical terms it refers specifically to the disease caused by bacteria.

"Pneumonia" comes from the Greek word "pneumon," which means "lung." The ending "-ia" is a Latin medical suffix meaning "condition of." So pneumonia literally means "a condition of the lungs."

In simple terms, plague pneumonia is a severe lung infection caused by plague bacteria. It's the type of plague that affects the lungs directly, making it spread from person to person through the air when someone coughs or sneezes.

Medical professionals sometimes use the abbreviation "pneumonic plague" to refer to the same condition. You can also hear it called just "pneumonic plague" (say: noo-MON-ik PLAYG) instead of the longer form.

Several medical terms use "pneumo-" because it means lung: pneumothorax (a collapsed lung), pneumonia (lung infection), and pneumoconiosis (lung damage from inhaling dust). Learning the "pneumo-" root helps you recognize other lung-related medical words.