K as in knife
October 12, 2006
My last name starts with a K, so whenever I’ve spelled out my name for people on the phone I’ve said “K, as in ‘knife’”. I’ve done this for years, almost without thinking. I was initially inspired by Inspector Clouseau in the first Pink Panther movie, where he was spelling something with a ‘J’, and he said ‘J, as in ‘jalapeno’”.
Anyway, years ago I started to put together a list of words with confusing/ambiguous first letters. One of the guys at work lent a hand and we nearly completed a list you can use for yourself. He brought in more of the foreign words, and helped in a few tough spots too. I think there’s still a couple with this list that need to be done or improved on, but I figured I’d post it here as my little public service. Feel free to use this next time you’re on the phone with someone needing to spell something!
- a as in aisle (or aye)
- b as in bdellium
- c as in czar
- d as in djibouti
- e as in eight
- f as in fjord
- g as in gnaw
- h as in herb
- i as in isle (ioan was recommended but I’m split on this one)
- j as in jalepeno
- k as in knife
- l as in Lladro (llano was another suggested alternate)
- m as in mnemonic
- n as in Nguyen (or ngwee)
- o as in oestrogen
- p as in pneumatic
- q as in queue (or quay - pronounced ‘kay’)
- r as in ????
- s as in scene (or sea)
- t as in tao (pronounced with the ‘t’ as a ‘d’)
- u as in uakari
- v as in “Five” (as in the roman numeral five - yes, a bit weak, but still gives the level of confusion suitable for phone conversations)
- w as in wrench (or ‘why’)
- x as in xenon
- y as in yttrium (Yvonne might work better for the phone?)
- z as in ????????
After I put this together, I did discover this other site which has a similiar list, with multiple options for each letter. The original purpose was slightly different that mine (confusing librarians, I believe) but you may still find this useful too!
Posted in




October 14th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
[...] So he and I went about filling out his list. There are some really great ones and some fairly weak ones. The best ones send you in the completely wrong direction. Imagine hearing someone say, “That’s A as in i, E as in ate, G as in naw, S as in c, T as in dow, W as in y, Q as in k, Y as in u”. How confused would you be? I love it! My apologies in advance to any call center workers or other customer service reps. Find my version of the complete list below… [...]
January 6th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
You should listen to the “Telephone Operator” sketch from the early 1960’s by Mike Nichols and Elaine May….
That is where “K” as in knife is from.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
thanks brian! Any idea where i might find that? Is there a particular album name that’s from?