Cheugy: Millennial slang term voted one of the most mispronounced words of the year

A term mocking millennials with poor fashion taste has been voted as one of the most mispronounced words of the year.

The slang word “cheugy” is used to describe, and dismiss, anything seen as hopelessly uncool or unfashionable, and dates back to 2013. It’s used to target millennials who are approaching the age of 40 who are likely to say things like “wine-o-clock”.

The correct pronunciation is “CHOO-gee”, but it is often mispronounced it as “Chuggy”, “CHO-jee” or “SHOE-gee”.

Research conducted by Babbel, a language-learning app, and the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters investigated which words had the nation tongue-tied.

Cryptocurrency Dogecoin was also included on the list of words that have been mispronounced, as well as the names of pop singer Billie Eilish, and Gina Coladangelo – Matt Hancock’s former aide and lover.

Senior linguist at Babbel Todd Ehresmann said: It’s always interesting for us to take our annual look at the terms that have been most mispronounced, as they are usually new vernacular or words that are borrowed from, or have origins in, another language.

“As they come into everyday parlance, it’s great to see people at least having a stab at saying them correctly, because having the confidence to speak new words and phrases is one of the most important aspects when learning a language.”

In November, “cheugy” was selected as one of the Collins Dictionary’s Words of the Year, alongside “NFT" (the abbreviation of “non-fungible token”), “neopronoun” and “pingdemic”