A reporter on NPR yesterday said “plethora.”  He pronounced it “pleth-OR’-uh.”

Ouch.

I was pleased to find that my two online dictionary sources pronounce it “pleth’-er-uh.”  (Middle syllable rhymes with “her” — with the emphasis on the first.)  “Plethora” is “an overabundance or excess of something.”  (“Plethora” is followed by the word “of.”)

So, let’s go with that pronunciation.  Please.

I was, however, troubled by the sources’ inclusion of the words “plethoric,” the adjective form, and “plethorically,” the adverb.  I was not troubled by the pronunciation of these two, which both pronounce the second syllable as “or,” and place the emphasis on that second syllable.  I guess that makes sense.

What concerns me, however, is that anyone would ever attempt to use either of these two forms.

What?  “Mispronunciations of the word ‘plethora’ are ‘plethoric’.”?  (I shudder here:  “Mispronunciation of the word ‘plethora’ is ‘plethoric’.”  Boggles the mind.)

I’ll go with “Many people mispronounce ‘plethora’.”