How do you pronounce philately?

The recorded pronunciation is /fɪˈlæt.ə.li/.

philately

/fɪˈlæt.ə.li/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.06 in modern English

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

noun

Countable; Uncountable

noun

Countable; Uncountable

First use appears c. 1865. Borrowed from French philatélie, coined by French stamp collector Georges Herpin in 1864 (in Le Collectionneur de Timbres-poste, Nov. 15, 1864), from Ancient Greek φιλέω (philéō, “I love”) + ἀτέλεια (atéleia), the closest word he could find in Ancient Greek to the concept of "postage stamp", from ἀ- (a-, “without”) + τέλος (télos, “tax”). This word serves as a reminder of the original function of postage stamps, now often forgotten: the cost of letter-carrying formerly was paid by the recipient; stamps indicated it had been prepaid by the sender, and thus the letters were "carriage-free".

philatelies (plural)

aerophilately astrophilately bibliophilately biophilately marcophily paraphilately philatelic philatelical philatelically philatelics philatelism philatelist

air philately

natalie nathalie nattily