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

zee

/ziː/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms zees zeeing zeed

  1. noun The name of the Latin script letter Z/z.
  2. noun Something Z-shaped. Found in compounds. “zee-bar.”
  3. noun (colloquial, usually in the plural) Sleep. “Time to get some zees.”
  4. verb (intransitive, informal) To sleep or nap. (Compare zzz, catch some z's.)
  5. verb (intransitive, rare) To zigzag; to move with sharp alternating turns.
  6. proper noun A surname.
  7. proper noun (Internet slang, derogatory) Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Synonyms

zed izzard uzzard Ze Zelly Z ezed

Etymology

Likely an alteration of zed (which see for more), by analogy with other letters such as bee, dee, tee and vee. Fell out of usage in England by the 17th century, and made standard in the U.S. in American Dictionary of English Language by Noah Webster in 1828, though usage varied for decades afterwards.

From Shanghainese 徐 (6zhi).

Clipping of Zelenskyy.

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