how do you pronounce Nihilist?

[imthefoolonthehill]

Nothing deep here, just wondering how you pronounce the word, "Nihilist"

I've always thought it was Nile (as in the river) ist

dictionary.com says

Nay-uh-list

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080914153358AA2uZiy

someone else's yahoo question doesn't seem to have a strong answer.

What do you guys think?

[Chava]

I've always pronounced it like Nile...

[Lokasenna]

I've always pronounced the 'Ni' as unvoiced, as in 'Nil', and the 'hi' rhyming with it. That said, I sure it doesn't matter that much!

[Mathor]

Ny-Uh-list.

[Dori]

Annihilation.

extract the -nihil- (keep the pronunciation!)
add -ist
(or -ism)

Voila!
Make any sense?

[imthefoolonthehill]

perfect. And that's the way I'd always said it... but it seemed as though people were uncertain... *shrug. Thanks. Problem resolved. I ask that people only post now if they disagree.

[Niamh]

Thats the way i have always said it for that exact reason Dori.

[Whifflingpin]

I pronounce "nihilist" Knee-ill-ist. It's from the Latin nihil, pronounced nee-hill. (or ni-hil as Lokasenna describes it)

[Zeruiah]

The British--and, IMO, proper--way to pronounce it is, like Dori said, similar to annihilation.

However, the common American way is with an /e/ sound, like "knee." Personally, I think this is etymologically incorrect, given the common "long-short" same vowel pronunciation of Latin roots, but whatever floats your boat I guess.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/dict.asp?Word=nihilism

This site used to have both American and British pronunciation of words, but I don't see it anymore. Maybe you can find it.