aqueduct

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Adapted from the Latin aquaeductus (“conveyance of water”), from aqua (“water”) + dūcō (“I lead”, “I bring”); compare the French aqueduc.

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈæk.wɪˌdʌkt/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈæk.wəˌdʌkt/
  • (US, see note) IPA(key): /ˈɑk.wəˌdʌkt/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Usage notes

The newer IPA(key): /ˈɑk-/ pronunciation (prescriptive based on the Latin etymology) has been objected to by some commentators.[1]

Noun

aqueduct (plural aqueducts)

  1. An artificial channel that is constructed to convey water from one location to another.
  2. A structure carrying water over a river or depression, especially in regards to ancient aqueducts.
    • 2017, Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire, Bloomsbury (2018), page 57:
      All the years he’d been down there in the traffic he’d taken this aqueduct for just another bridge, nothing to tell you that canal boats and waterfowl were being carried along above your head.
  3. (anatomy) A structure conveying fluid, such as the cerebral aqueduct or vestibular aqueduct.

Derived terms

Translations

References
  1. Charles Harrington Elster (2005) “aqueduct AK-wi̱-duhkt”, in The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide for the Careful Speaker, second edition, New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 36:
    I wish I could state, as I did in the first edition of this book, that AK-wi̱-duhkt (AK- as in sack) is the only recognized pronunciation. Unfortunately, the editors of Encarta (2001) and NOA (2001) have been seduced by the popular, broad-a variant AH-kwuh-duhkt (AH- as in father), and they apparently were so taken with its pseudo-Latin charm that they didn’t merely list it; they listed it first. However, the latest editions of the other major current American dictionaries — WNW 4 (1999), American Heritage 4 (2000), RHWC (2001), and M-W 11 (2003) — continue to countenance only AK-kwi̱-duhkt, which has always been and still is the only cultivated pronunciation. / (In case you’re wondering, aqueduct begins with aque- instead of aqua- because it comes from the Latin aquae, the genitive of aqua, water.)
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