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

brainstorm

UK /ˈbɹeɪnstɔːm/ · US /ˈbɹeɪnstɔɹm/ verb, noun

Forms brainstorms brainstorming brainstormed brain-storm brain storm

  1. verb (intransitive) To investigate something, or solve a problem using brainstorming.
  2. verb (intransitive) To participate in a brainstorming session.
  3. verb (transitive) To think up (ideas); especially, to do so creatively. “I need you to brainstorm some suggestions for next week's activity schedule.”
  4. noun (US) A sudden thought, particularly one that solves a long-standing problem. “I had been working on the problem for weeks, and then I had a brainstorm and saw that the solution was easy.”
  5. noun A session of brainstorming, investigating a problem to try to find solutions.
  6. noun (UK) An unexpected mental error.

Synonyms

brainwave insight

Etymology

From brain + storm. In the sense of "problem-solve", devised as a method of group creative problem-solving by advertising executive Alex F. Osborn and his employees, who coined the term based on the image of using "the brain to storm a problem". First use appears c. 1945. In the sense of "seizure, convulsion, brain activity", from the unrelated idea that it resembles a storm in the brain. First use appears c. 1861.

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