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

blowhole

/ˈbləʊhəʊl/ noun, verb

Forms blowholes blowholing blowholed

  1. noun (marine biology) The spiracle, on the top of the head, through which cetaceans breathe.
  2. noun A hole in sea ice where cetaceans and pinnipeds come to breathe.
  3. noun (geology) A top-facing opening to a cavity in the ground very near an ocean's shore, leading to a marine cave from which wave water or bursts of air are expelled.
  4. noun (geology) A vent for the escape of steam or other gas.
  5. noun (metallurgy) An unintended cavity filled with air in a casting product.
  6. noun (computer hardware) A vertical opening in the top of a computer case that lets hot air (primarily from the CPU heat sink) escape quickly.
  7. verb (metallurgy, ambitransitive) To fill or be filled with air in an unintended cavity.

Synonyms

vent venthole vent-hole

Etymology

From blow + hole.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A cavern in a cliff, at the water level, opening to the air at its farther extremity, so that the waters rush in with each surge and rise in a lofty jet from the extremity.
  2. noun A nostril or spiracle in the top of the head of a whale or other cetacean.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “blowhole”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details