How to Pronounce Chikungunya

Chikungunya is pronounced "chik-un-GUN-yah." Say it in four syllables: chik (rhymes with "quick"), un (like the word "un" in "undo"), GUN (rhymes with "sun"), and yah (like "yeah"). The stress falls on the third syllable, GUN, which should be said louder and longer than the others.

Many people stress the wrong syllable and say "chik-un-gun-YAH" with emphasis on the last syllable, but that's incorrect. The correct way puts the stress on GUN in the middle: "chik-un-GUN-yah." Remember: GUN gets the emphasis, not YAH.

Chikungunya breaks into four syllables: chik-un-gun-ya. This might seem like a lot of syllables, but taking it one piece at a time makes it easier to say correctly.

The word comes from the Makonde language, which is spoken in parts of Africa. In Makonde, "chikungunya" means "to become contorted," describing the bent-over posture that gave the disease its name. It's not based on Greek or Latin like many medical terms.

Chikungunya is the name of a viral illness transmitted by mosquitoes. The name literally means "to become contorted" because it causes severe joint pain that can make people bend over or move in unusual ways.

Chikungunya is sometimes abbreviated as "CHIKV" in medical writing, which stands for chikungunya virus. You would say each letter separately: C-H-I-K-V.

You might hear someone say: "The doctor explained that the patient was diagnosed with chikungunya after returning from travel" or "Health officials warned that chikungunya cases had increased in the region." The word is used as a noun to name the disease.

Dengue and Zika are other viral diseases transmitted by similar mosquitoes, so you might hear them mentioned together with chikungunya in news or educational materials. However, these words don't share the same root—they just belong to the same category of mosquito-borne diseases.