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Pete Cheslock for AppMap

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How do you say... "jwt"

Have you heard of a "jwt" before (JSON web token)?

It's a word we often read and write but rarely say.

So how do you pronounce it?

I asked over 30 software engineers and technical operators exactly that question. Here are a handful of their responses.

Turns out - there is an official pronunciation for "jwt" on the creators's (Auth0) website.


 web token (JWT), pronounced "jot", is an open standard (RFC 7519) that defines a compact and self-contained way for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object.

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But it's NOT the same way to pronounce "JWt (Java web toolkit)".

JWt


 (pronounced "jay-witty") is an open-source widget-centric web application framework for the Java programming language developed by Emweb.

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Want to see more tech word pronunciations by tech professionals? Find them on Youtube. New videos ship every Friday.

Top comments (6)

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lionelrowe profile image
lionel-rowe

I'd only ever heard /dʒeɪdʌbl̩juˈtiː/ and /dʒɒt/ before, but I'm quite enamored with /dʒwɪt/ after hearing your video. /ˈdʒeɪwɪti/ sounds horrible, nails on chalkboard, hate it. And /dʒuːt/ sounds like some kind of drug paraphernalia to me for some reason 😆

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miketalbot profile image
Mike Talbot ⭐

Thank you, thank you, thank you... Some research I should have done myself!

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singaporian profile image
Michael L. Abramovich

Hota-uve-doble-te
Gracias :-D

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panayiotisgeorgiou profile image
Panayiotis Georgiou

thanks for sharing 🙌🙌🙌🙌

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iambam profile image
Brian Miller

Oh! So the creator does get to decide how it's pronounced. That's going to crush some meme lords.

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dave_austin_8026682a80272 profile image
Dave Austin

How it "should" be pronounced vs. how it's pronounced - not the same thing. They get the decide the former. The community decides how it's actually pronounced through their actions. Who here really pronounces gif like "jif"? I'm guessing maybe half of developers and tech-history nerds (and it used to be almost nobody until it became a way for nerds to prove their nerdiness), but among everyone else nearly nobody says jif, even today after nerds made a big fuss over it.