Heard spelling

kalaza

Spelled chalaza. a hard c

Why ch for a k sound?

Because the Greek letter is chi, and ch is how Latin agreed to write it.

The same pair says k in chorus, character, echo, chemist and chlorophyll. It is one of the more reliable signals in English that a word came through Greek, and it is the reason chalaza is not spelled kalaza despite sounding exactly like it.

Say

kuh-LAY-zuh

Letters

C-H-A-L-A-Z-A