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Nucular is a common, proscribed pronunciation of the word "". It is a eye dialect of . The Oxford English Dictionarys entry dates the word's first published appearance to 1943." nucular, adj.2". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. Accessed 10 September 2013.
Though disapproved of by many, pronunciations ending in \-kyə-lər\ have been found in widespread use among educated speakers, including scientists, lawyers, professors, congressmen, United States cabinet members, and at least two United States presidents and one vice president. While most common in the United States, these pronunciations have also been heard from British and Canadian speakers.
The American Heritage Dictionary notes:
The pronunciation (noo'kyə-lər), which is generally considered incorrect, is an example of how a familiar phonological pattern can influence an unfamiliar one ... since much more common is the similar sequence (-kyə-lər), which occurs in words like particular, circular, spectacular, and in many scientific words like molecular, ocular, and vascular.
The Oxford English Dictionary notes:
The colloquial pronunciation British /ˈnjuːkjʊlə/, U.S. /ˈn(j)ukjələr/ (frequently rendered in written form as nucular...) has been criticized in usage guides since at least the mid 20th century ... although it is now commonly given as a variant in modern dictionaries." nuclear, adj. (and adv.) and n.". OED Online. September 2013. Oxford University Press. Accessed 10 September 2013.
In his 1999 book The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations, logophile Charles Harrington Elster wrote that the vast majority of those he spoke to while writing his book as well as 99% of the 1985 Survey panel of Morris & Morris's Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage specifically condemned the use of the word and characterized it as a mispronunciation. Elster's own view on the matter derives from the root of the word: " nucleus". Arguing by analogy, Elster suggests that " Molecular comes from molecule, and particular comes from particle, but there is no nucule to support nucular."Elster, Charles Harrington. The Big Book Of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide for the Careful Speaker. Houghton Mifflin. Pp.347-350. . 2006. Do you Speak American? PBS. 2005.
Oxford professor Marcus du Sautoy used this pronunciation in a BBC documentary.BBC documentary, "Faster Than the Speed of Light"
The nuclear physicist Edward Teller, "father" of the American hydrogen bomb, supposedly used "nucular", and it does have some currency in the American nuclear research establishment. But in a 1965 interview on Project Plowshare, Teller used the standard pronunciation.
The 17th U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, said "nucular" several times in his welcome remarks on February 5, 2025.
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