Word Nerd moment.
A kludge is a fix-it that’s “good enough”, something “that’ll do” for now. I don’t actively use it, but oh I recognize a kludge when I see one.
I happily pronounced kludge to rhyme with fudge (the chocolatey noun) and budge (what I’ll do for fudge) until I heard an NPR report. They pronounced it kloooj, which rhymes with nothing I can think of.
They also knew the history behind the word, so I figured their pronunciation was right.
Later, I peeked at Merriam-Webster’s entry for kludge. There, too, it’s pronounced kloooj.
But what it rhymes with?
Oh M-W is just most obnoxiously wrong here.
Re-read some Dr. Seuss books, you M-W people.
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