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

brownie

/ˈbɹaʊni/ noun, proper noun

Forms brownies

  1. noun (usually countable, baking, originally US) A small square piece of rich cake, usually made with chocolate. “Order for the brownie was placed but it took half an hour to prepare it.”
  2. noun (uncountable, baking, Australia and New Zealand) A sweet bread with brown sugar and currants.
  3. noun (folklore) A mythical creature, a helpful elf who would secretly do people's housework for them.
  4. noun A copper coin, brown in colour; a penny, halfpenny, or cent.
  5. noun (paganism) A household spirit or revered ancestor.
  6. noun Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the Eurasian genus Miletus.
  7. noun (informal) A brown trout (Salmo trutta).
  8. noun (informal) A widow rockfish (Sebastes entomelas), a fish in the family Sebastidae.
  9. noun (UK, Canada, Australia) A junior Girl Guide.
  10. noun (US) A junior Girl Scout.
  11. proper noun A nickname of the surname Brown.

Synonyms

chocolate brownie Rosebud elf hob gremlin pixie pixy imp

Etymology

From brown + -ie (diminutive suffix). In folkloric sense, originally Scots. For sense 7, compare with Dutch kabouter (“a very young female member of the scout movement”) (literally "gnome").

From brownie (“a helpful elf”). Specifically, inspired by the story "The Brownies" by Juliana Horatia Ewing (published in 1870, The Brownies and Other Tales), in which two children, Tommy and Betty, learn that children can be helpful brownies or lazy boggarts. But compare with Dutch kabouter (“a very young female member of the scout movement”) (literally, a "gnome").

From Brown + -ie.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An imaginary good-natured spirit, who was supposed often to perform important services around the house by night, such as thrashing, churning, sweeping. [Scot.]

Etymology [So called from its supposed tawny or swarthy color.]

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