English pronunciation · Words Starting with Q
Quixote Pronunciation
Quixote is pronounced kee-HOH-tee, IPA /kiˈhoʊti/.
kee-HOH-tee
US /kiˈhoʊti/
Syllables: kee · HOH · tee (3 syllables, stress on syllable 2)
proper noun: Don Quixote, the deluded knight of Cervantes's novel, and by extension anyone chasing hopeless causes.
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Quixote in a Sentence
- She read Don Quixote twice, once in Spanish and once in translation.
- His campaign had a touch of Quixote about it from the start.
- The statue of Quixote and Sancho stands in the main square.
Common Mispronunciations of Quixote
Not KWIK-sote
The spelling is Spanish, where this x stood for an h sound that modern Spanish writes as j. English keeps the old spelling and the old sound: kee-HOH-tee.
Not kee-HOH-tay
Spanish would end in tay, but the settled English pronunciation closes with a long ee. Anglicised quixotic follows the same drift to kwik-SAH-tik.
Tip: Three syllables and no w anywhere: kee-HOH-tee. The adjective quixotic, oddly, does take the kwik sound.
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