Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

wildcat

UK /ˈwaɪldˌkæt/ · US /ˈwaɪ.əldˌkæt/ noun, adjective, verb

Forms wildcats wildcatting wildcatted wild-cat wild cat

  1. noun (UK) Felis silvestris, a common small Old World wild cat somewhat larger than a house cat.
  2. noun (US) A bobcat (Lynx rufus) or other similar New World species of lynx.
  3. noun Any feral cat.
  4. noun (figurative) A person who acts like a wildcat, (usually) a violent and easily-angered person or a sexually vigorous one.
  5. noun (American football) An offensive formation with an unbalanced line and a snap directly to the running back rather than the quarterback.
  6. noun (nautical) A wheel that can be adjusted so as to revolve either with or on the shaft of a capstan.
  7. adjective (usually derogatory) Of or concerning businesses operating outside standard or legitimate practice, especially:
  8. adjective (derogatory, dated) Of or concerning irresponsible banks or banking, (particularly) small, independent operations.
  9. adjective (oil industry) Of or concerning oil exploration in new areas, (particularly) small, independent operations.
  10. adjective Of or concerning actions undertaken by workers without approval or in defiance of the formal leadership of their trade unions.
  11. adjective (firearms) Of or concerning customized or hand-made cartridges.
  12. adjective Unauthorized by the proper authorities.
  13. verb (oil industry) To drill for oil in an area where no oil has been found before. “You'd have to be very rich or very desperate to go wildcatting that far east.”

Synonyms

feral cat desert cat bobcat wildcat well beast wolf savage brute unauthorized unauthorised

Etymology

From Middle English wyld cat, wylde cat (in the plural as wild cattes, wylde catis, wyle cattes), equivalent to wild + cat. Cognate with Middle Low German wiltkatte, German Wildkatze, Swedish vildkatt.
Its adjectival senses were originally American and derived from the "wildcat banks" of Michigan, following its elevation to statehood in 1837. Two laws—one easing the requirements for establishing a new bank and another occasioned by the Panic of 1837 that removed the need for payment in specie—led to the creation and collapse of around 50 banks within two years. The term is apocryphally derived from a wildcat supposedly featured on the currency printed by one of these banks, but more probably derived from the remote locations "where the wildcats roamed" chosen by these banks to avoid oversight and minimize redemption of notes.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “wildcat”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details