Hegemony is a word that indicates political, military, economic or social control of one state over another. Hegemony is also used to indicate the prevarication of certain values, norms or social groups above other within a society.
The word hegemony derives from the Ancient Greek word hēgemonía
, meaning "rule" or "political supremacy".
The pronunciation of hegemony varies between British and American English. There are two ways to pronounce it in American English.
The first pronunciation of hegemony is heh-JEH-muh-nee
In both cases, hegemony is pronounced with a soft "g". This means that the "g" is pronounced with a "j" sound, like in the word "gel".
In this first case, the stress is placed on the second syllable of the word.
This differs from the British pronunciation of hegemony
, which contains a hard "g".
The second way to pronounce hegemony in American English places the stress on the third syllable, making it heh-jeh-MOE-nee
. Due to the change in stress, the third syllable is pronounced differently. Instead, of being pronounced as -muh
, it is pronounced as -moe
, with a long "o".