How to pronounce espresso

Short answer: say es-PRESS-oh (/ɛˈsprɛsoʊ/), with an S at the start and no K sound. That's the espresso pronunciation in Merriam-Webster, Cambridge, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, Dictionary.com, American Heritage and Collins. British English is almost the same, /ɛˈsprɛsəʊ/, and in Italian it's es-PRESS-soh, /esˈprɛs.so/, with a long S. ex-PRESS-oh goes with the spelling expresso, which Merriam-Webster lists as a less common variant.

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Is it espresso or expresso?

Every dictionary we checked spells and says the word with an S. The X belongs to the variant spelling expresso:

Four of these dictionaries list expresso; Collins calls it nonstandard. Cambridge has no entry (its expresso page sends you to espresso), Oxford Learner's Dictionaries suggests espresso instead, and in 2016 Oxford's online dictionary called the X spelling strictly incorrect, though common.

Usage guides side with the S. Garner's Modern American Usage says writers often get it wrong, as Ben Yagoda noted in Slate in 2014, and Paul Brians's Common Errors in English Usage lists expresso as an error. Merriam-Webster is more relaxed: a 2019 article on its site calls the X spelling "both logical and etymologically defensible", since express and espresso share a Latin root.

A 2026 OnePoll survey of 2,000 UK adults for Škoda UK put espresso 18th among Britain's 20 most mispronounced words, with ex-PRESS-oh as the mistake. It's a brand survey, not a scientific one. In 2014 "Weird Al" Yankovic made the X in espresso one of the offenses in his parody "Word Crimes".

Our advice: say es-PRESS-oh and spell it espresso. Expresso is in several dictionaries, so it isn't made up, but usage guides and the Škoda survey count it as a mistake.

Why is espresso pronounced with an S, not an X?

Because the word is Italian, and X isn't part of the standard Italian alphabet: Latin exprimere, "to press out", became Italian esprimere, and its past participle is espresso.

The X sneaks back in through English. Dictionary.com notes that far more English words begin with ex- than with es-, and Yagoda adds that words starting with exp are about eight times as common as those starting with esp. Express also suggests speed, which suits a quick shot of coffee (Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster). French pulls the same way: there the drink is expresso or express (Larousse).

What the Italian name means is debated. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries and Collins translate it as pressed-out coffee. Merriam-Webster thinks it more likely meant coffee made on the spot at the customer's request, and Treccani, the Italian dictionary, agrees: it defines caffè espresso as coffee made specially for the customer who ordered it, a sense it traces to English express.

Both spellings are old in English. Merriam-Webster dates the first known use of espresso to 1930. According to Yagoda, The New York Times used expresso 43 times from 1945 to 1960, against 122 for espresso, and in Britain a 1958 musical and a 1959 Cliff Richard film were called Expresso Bongo. Since the 1970s, he writes, espresso has dominated.

How to say espresso step by step

1. Start with "es": the short "e" of bed, then a hiss, with no K before the S.
2. Stress "PRESS", like the English word press, and let the S run straight into it: es-PRESS.
3. End with "oh": es-PRESS-oh.

If a K creeps in, hold the first S for a moment: esss-PRESS-oh. French speakers need extra care, since French expresso has a K sound in its first syllable (eks-preh-SOH).

Practice in a sentence

• A double espresso, please: es-PRESS-oh.
• Espresso starts like escape, not like express.
• It's an espresso martini, with an S.

Then practice es- against ex-. American pronunciations, from the Cambridge Dictionary:

For more Italian food words, see how to pronounce bruschetta, gnocchi and bolognese. Mischievous is another word people add a sound to, and espresso is on our list of 45 commonly mispronounced words.

What is espresso?

Espresso is strong, concentrated coffee made by forcing hot water under high pressure through finely ground coffee. A shot is typically 25 to 30 ml, topped with a lighter foam called crema; add steamed milk and you get a latte or a cappuccino. Angelo Moriondo patented an early steam machine in Turin in 1884, and in the 1940s Achille Gaggia's lever machines gave espresso its crema. In Italy it's usually just called caffè.

Sources

• Merriam-Webster — espresso and expresso; Is it 'espresso' or 'expresso'? Yes, 2019
• Cambridge Dictionary — espresso; Oxford Learner's Dictionaries — espresso and espresso (American English)
• Dictionary.com — espresso and expresso; American Heritage Dictionary — espresso
• Collins — espresso and expresso; Wiktionary — espresso and expresso; Oxford Dictionaries — espresso, 2016, archived
• Treccani — espresso; Larousse — expresso and express
• Slate — Espresso or expresso?, Ben Yagoda, August 2014
• Paul Brians, Common Errors in English Usage — expresso, Washington State University
• Škoda UK — Britain's most mispronounced words, August 2026
• Wikipedia — Espresso, Expresso Bongo (film) and Word Crimes