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

boy

/bɔɪ/ noun, interjection, verb

Forms boys boyz boying boyed boi

  1. noun A male child. “Kieran plays football with other boys in his school.”
  2. noun (loosely, informal) A young man. “Kate is dating a boy named Jim.”
  3. noun (loosely, diminutive, especially with a possessive) A son of any age.
  4. noun (loosely, endearing, diminutive) A male human younger than the speaker.
  5. noun (loosely, informal, sometimes mildly derogatory) A male human of any age, as opposed to a "girl" (female human of any age). “boys' club”
  6. noun (loosely, obsolete) A male of low station, (especially as pejorative) a worthless male, a wretch; a mean and dishonest male, a knave.
  7. noun (loosely, now rare and usually offensive outside some Commonwealth nations) A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee, particularly:
  8. noun A younger such worker.
  9. interjection Exclamation of surprise, pleasure or longing. “Boy, that was close!”
  10. verb (transitive) To act as a boy (in allusion to the former practice of boys acting women's parts on the stage).

Synonyms

brat knave squirt son chap guy lad mate heroin manservant bhoy boykin boyo callant chav feely-omi little boy man child manling page male child

Antonyms

girl man

Etymology

From Middle English boy /boye (“servant, commoner, knave, boy”), from Old English *bōia (“boy”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōjō, from Proto-Germanic *bōjô (“younger brother, young male relation”), from Proto-Germanic *bō- (“brother, close male relation”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰā-, *bʰāt- (“father, elder brother, brother”).
Cognate with Scots boy (“boy”), West Frisian boai (“boy”), Dutch boi (“boy”), Low German Boi (“boy”), and probably to the Old English proper name Bōia. Also related to Saterland Frisian Bouge (“boy”), West Flemish boe (“brother”), Norwegian dialectal boa (“brother”), Dutch boef (“rogue, knave”), Bavarian Bua (“young boy, lad”), German Bube ("boy; knave; jack"; > English bub), Icelandic bófi (“rogue, crook, bandit, knave”), Lombard bagaj ("boy"; (< Germanic)). See also bully.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A male child, from birth to the age of puberty; a lad; hence, a son. My only boy fell by the side of great Dundee. Sir W. Scott.
  2. verb To act as a boy; --in allusion to the former practice of boys acting women's parts on the stage.

Etymology [Cf. D. boef, Fries. boi, boy; akin to G. bube, Icel. bofi rouge.]

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “boy” (best matches first).

All 41 Sanskrit matches →