chaos
noun · complete confusion and disorder
- KAYkeɪ (stressed)
- ahsɑːs
- KAYkeɪ (stressed)
- ossɒs
- US /ˈkeɪ.ɑːs/KAY-ahs Recorded voice
- UK /ˈkeɪ.ɒs/KAY-oss Your device’s voice
How to pronounce chaos
Chaos is pronounced KAY-ahs in American English and KAY-oss in British English. It has two syllables with the stress on the first, and the ch is a K sound. The first syllable sounds like the letter K.
- 2 syllables
- Stress on KAY
- US and UK IPA
- Checked in Cambridge and Oxford
IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.
Chaos, sound by sound
Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.
US American English/ˈkeɪ.ɑːs/
KAYstressed
- /k/as in cat
- /eɪ/as in day
ahs
- /ɑː/as in father
- /s/as in see
UK British English/ˈkeɪ.ɒs/
KAYstressed
- /k/as in cat
- /eɪ/as in day
oss
- /ɒ/as in hot (UK)
- /s/as in see
Say chaos yourself
Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes chaos, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.
Tip. Start with KAY, like the letter K. The ch is never the ch of chair here.
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Common chaos pronunciation mistakes
What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say KAY-ahs.
Not
CHAY-ossSaying ch as in chair. In Greek words like this one, ch is K.
Not
KAH-osUsing the a of father, as in Spanish caos. The first syllable is KAY, like the letter K.
Not
KOWSReading ao as one sound, like cows. Chaos has two syllables: KAY, then ahs or oss.
Chaos in a sentence
Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.
The storm left the city in chaos.
There was chaos at the airport this morning.
With three small kids, mornings are pure chaos.
Why does chaos start with a K sound?
Chaos comes from the Greek khaos, a vast empty space. Greek had a letter for this sound, and Latin wrote it as ch. English kept that spelling but says it as K, as in character, chorus, echo and stomach.
In English the word first named the empty space before the world was made. The everyday meaning, confusion and disorder, came in the 1600s. The word gas is a cousin: the Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont made it from chaos.
After KAY, the vowel depends on the accent: ahs in American English, oss in British English. In chaotic the stress moves to the second syllable: kay-AH-tik (US), kay-OT-ik (UK).
Words that sound like chaos
Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.
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