Pneumonic or Mnemonic?

Question

So my English teacher gave us some work and we had to write down 'pneumonics' for some words. I'm fairly sure it's spelt 'mnemonic.' Who's correct?

Edit: The usage being the "memory" words, for example:

Alliteration

Facts

Opinions

Rhetorical question

Emotive language

Statistics

Triples

Where the mnemonic above would be 'AFOREST'

Both pneumonic and mnemonic are words... to help you, we need to know what kind of words those were that you had to write down. — skymningen, Apr 21 '15 at 06:40
Mnemonic is memory. Pneumonic is having to do with pneumonia. — ScotM, Apr 21 '15 at 06:49
Have you taken the trouble to look up pneumonic in a dictionary? It relates to inflammation of the lungs! — WS2, Apr 21 '15 at 06:58
@Jay this seems to be a common misconception, your teacher is not alone (although he/she should have checked). There was a discussion about it in the comments at MW under the entry pneumonic. — Lucky, Apr 21 '15 at 07:41
You should have raised your hand and said: "Miss (name), I thought it was spelled M•N•E• monics." The two words do have similar pronunciations, hopefully this was a one-off error made by your teacher, a slip up which can happen to the best of us. (Although ‘M for memory’ is a pretty easy mnemonic) — Mari-Lou A, Apr 21 '15 at 08:36
related Mnemonic for remembering how to spell “mnemonic” — Mari-Lou A, Apr 21 '15 at 08:41
+1 for drawing my attention to a blatant misconception that I would never have guessed existed! Personally I pronounce the two words differently, but I can see how the eu/e could be homophones. — oerkelens, Apr 21 '15 at 08:44
@Mari-LouA: That question belongs on Meta... it's a prime example of a self-referecing question :D — oerkelens, Apr 21 '15 at 08:45

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 21 '15 at 06:55

1

pneumonic (not comparable)

Of, or relating to the lungs; pulmonary.

Of, or relating to pneumonia.

It has nothing to do with memory. You are right by correcting to mnemonic.

answered Apr 21 '15 at 06:55

Yohann V.

1 Answers1