Dictionary entry

Pronounce

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Pro‐nounce″ (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p.Pronounced (?); p. pr. & vb. n.Pronounging (?).] [F. prononcer, L. pronunciare; pro before, forth + nunciare, nuntiare, to announce. See Announce.]

1. To utter articulately; to speak out or distinctly; to utter, as words or syllables; to speak with the proper sound and accent as, adults rarely learn to pronounce a foreign language correctly.

2. To utter officially or solemnly; to deliver, as a decree or sentence; as, to pronounce sentence of death.

Sternly he pronounced

The rigid interdiction. Milton.

3. To speak or utter rhetorically; to deliver; to recite; as, to pronounce an oration.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you. Shak.

4. To declare or affirm; as, he pronounced the book to be a libel; he pronounced the act to be a fraud.

The God who hallowed thee and blessed,

Pronouncing thee all good. Keble.

Syn. — To deliver; utter; speak. See Deliver.