How to pronounce pecan

Short answer: in American English, say pih-KAHN (/pɪˈkɑːn/), often written "puh-KAHN", with the stress on the second syllable. Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, Dictionary.com, Cambridge and Oxford Learner's Dictionaries all list it first. PEE-kan (/ˈpiːkæn/) and pih-KAN (/pɪˈkæn/) are in the same American dictionaries, so they're correct too. For British English, Oxford Learner's Dictionaries lists PEE-kuhn (/ˈpiːkən/) first.

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Is it pih-KAHN or PEE-kan?

Both. Five American dictionaries list three versions, in the same order, and British dictionaries have their own:

Americans really are split. In the Harvard Dialect Survey, an online survey by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder completed in 2003, 11,213 people answered the pecan question. About half chose a "KAHN" ending: pee-KAHN (28.6%) or "pick-ahn" (20.9%, with no stress marked). About 30% stressed the first syllable: PEE-kan (17.0%) or PEE-kahn (13.2%). Anyone could take the survey, so it isn't a random sample. On its maps, PEE-kan answers cluster in the Northeast and down the Atlantic coast, and PEE-kahn answers in the Upper Midwest.

It isn't a simple North-South split, though. In a National Pecan Shellers Association poll, reported by The Washington Post in 2016, 45% of Southerners said PEE-kan, and so did nearly 70% of Northeasterners. The Post gives no year or sample size. Dialect researcher Josh Katz and food writer Kathleen Purvis both see a city-country line instead, but their accounts put PEE-kan on opposite sides. Purvis's mother, from Atlanta, had her own view of PEE-kan: "Pee-can? That's something you put under the bed."

In 2020 the American Pecan Council ran an online vote: "puh-CON" beat "PEA-can" 66% to 34%, out of nearly 361,000 votes. Voters were entered into a prize contest, so it wasn't a scientific survey. On NPR in 2024, Martha Stewart said she says puh-KAHN, never pee-can.

Our advice: say pih-KAHN. It's first in all five American dictionaries above, it won the 2020 vote, and it keeps the stress of the French pacane. If you grew up with PEE-kan, keep it: it's in the same dictionaries. In Britain, PEE-kuhn is the safe choice.

Why is pecan pronounced differently?

Pecan is a Native American word that reached English through French. Merriam-Webster and American Heritage trace it to Illinois pakani, "nut" (pakaani in today's Myaamia, or Miami-Illinois, dictionary). Dictionary.com traces the root to a Proto-Algonquian word for "nut" built on a verb meaning "crack nuts". French speakers in the Mississippi Valley made it pacane, stressed at the end, and English borrowed it in the 1700s; Merriam-Webster dates the first known use to 1761.

The spelling trap is that pecan doesn't show the stress, and English has moved it back and forth ever since, as some speakers do with GAR-age or PO-lice. When the stress moves, the vowels change with it. That's how one word became pih-KAHN, pee-KAHN, PEE-kan and PEE-kahn.

In Ojibwe, a related language, a nut is bagaan. On NPR in 2024, Ojibwe linguist Michael Migizi Sullivan pronounced it "buh-gahn" and called puh-KAHN the closest English version.

How to say pecan step by step

For the American pih-KAHN:

1. Start with a quick, light "pih" (or "puh"). Don't stress it, and don't say "pie": none of the dictionaries above lists that vowel.
2. Stress "KAHN": a clear K, then an open "ah", as in father.
3. Finish with N and stop. It's two syllables: pih-KAHN.

For PEE-kan, flip the stress: a long "PEE", as in see, then a short "kan" that rhymes with can. The British PEE-kuhn weakens the second syllable to "kuhn".

Practice in a sentence

• Could I get a slice of pecan pie, please?
• Is it pih-KAHN or PEE-kan? Both are in the dictionary.
• Toast the pecans before you add them to the salad.

Then try other food words with two American pronunciations, from the Cambridge Dictionary:

For more words that Americans say in different ways, see how to pronounce caramel, aunt, crayon and Appalachian.

What is a pecan?

A pecan is the nut of a tall hickory tree, Carya illinoinensis, from the central and southern United States and Mexico. Its smooth, thin shell holds a sweet, oily kernel, used in pecan pie and pralines. The National Pecan Shellers Association calls it the only major tree nut that grows naturally in North America, and Texas made the pecan its state tree in 1919.

Sources

• Merriam-Webster — pecan, pronunciations and first known use; American Heritage Dictionary — pecan
• Cambridge Dictionary — pecan; Oxford Learner's Dictionaries — pecan and pecan (American English)
• Dictionary.com — pecan; Collins — pecan; Wiktionary — pecan
• Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and Myaamia Center — Myaamia dictionary: pakaani, "nut"; Ojibwe People's Dictionary — bagaan
• Mental Floss — How do you say "pecan"?, Arika Okrent
• Bert Vaux and Scott Golder — Harvard Dialect Survey, question 21: pecan, 2003 (archived copy)
• The Washington Post — Pecan vs. pecan, Steven Petrow, December 2016 (archived copy)
• TODAY — American Pecan Council vote results, November 2020; NPR — how the word pecan is supposed to be pronounced, November 2024
• National Pecan Shellers Association — the pecan's origin; Texas A&M Forest Service — our state tree