Why is medicine pronounced medicine?
British English drops the unstressed second syllable to make it sound like med-sin /ˈmɛd. This applies to many words like secretary, inventory and accidentally – but reversed for caramel family, chocolate and camera where Americans seem to drop syllables.
Is medicine 2 or 3 syllables?
The French pronounce it with 2 syllables, so the original way to pronounce it probably was with 2. The language in USA has evolved differently, so this is just one of the places where we speak a little different from them. Kano_Jim, #8, And the Spanish pronounce it with 4 syllables, so who’s to say.