How to Pronounce Fetoscopy

Fetoscopy is pronounced fee-TOS-koh-pee. The stress falls on the second syllable, which sounds like "TOSS." Say it like you're saying "fee" (rhymes with "see"), then emphasize "TOS" (like the beginning of the word "toss"), and finish with "koh-pee" (which rhymes with "go free").

Fetoscopy has four syllables: fe-TOS-ko-py. If you say it slowly, you can count each part separately: "fee" (1), "toss" (2), "koh" (3), "pee" (4).

The second syllable gets the stress in fetoscopy—the "TOS" part. Many people mistakenly put stress on the first syllable and say "FEE-toscopy," but the correct way is "fee-TOS-koh-pee."

Fetoscopy comes from two Greek roots: "feto-" (meaning fetus or unborn baby) and "-scopy" (meaning to look at or view). So the word literally means "looking at the fetus."

In plain English, fetoscopy means using a tiny camera to see inside the womb and look at a developing baby. It's a way to get a close-up view using a very thin tool.

Yes! Many medical words end in "-scopy" because it means "to look at." You might hear endoscopy (looking inside), colonoscopy (looking at the colon), or bronchoscopy (looking at the airways). They all follow the same pronunciation pattern for the "-scopy" part.

Fetoscopy is sometimes abbreviated as "FTS," pronounced by saying each letter: "eff-tee-ess." However, the full word fetoscopy is more commonly used in medical conversations.

You might hear someone say: "The doctor recommended fetoscopy to get a better look at the baby during pregnancy." The word is used as a noun (the name of the procedure) and doesn't change its form in a sentence.