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

buoy

/ˈbɔɪ/ noun, verb

Forms buoys buoying buoyed

  1. noun (nautical) A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, indicate a navigational channel or for other purposes
  2. noun A lifebuoy; a life preserver.
  3. noun (linguistics, sign language) A sign where the non-dominant hand is held in a stationary configuration as a landmark for meaning associations with the dominant hand. “list buoy”
  4. verb (transitive) To keep afloat or aloft; used with up.
  5. verb (transitive) To support or maintain at a high level.
  6. verb (transitive) To mark with a buoy. “to buoy an anchor; to buoy or buoy off a channel”
  7. verb To maintain or enhance enthusiasm or confidence; to lift the spirits of. “Buoyed by the huge success, they announced two other projects.”

Synonyms

buoy up

Etymology

From Middle English boy, boye, from Middle Dutch boeye (“float, buoy”), from Old French boue (“piece of wood or cork that floats above an anchor to indicate where it is anchored”) (modern French bouée), ultimately from Frankish *baukn (“beacon”), from Proto-Germanic *baukną. Doublet of beacon.
Alternatively, and perhaps less likely (due to the unexplained shift in meaning), from Middle Dutch boeye (“shackle, fetter”), from Old French buie (“fetter, chain”), from Latin boia (“a (leather) collar, band, fetter”), from Ancient Greek βόεος (bóeos), βόειος (bóeios, “of ox-hide”), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).
Noun sense 2 was coined by American linguist Scott K. Lindell in 2003.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A float; esp. a floating object moored to the bottom, to mark a channel or to point out the position of something beneath the water, as an anchor, shoal, rock, etc. Anchor buoy, a buoy attached to, or marking the position of, an anchor.
  2. verb To keep from sinking in a fluid, as in water or air; to keep afloat; --with up.
  3. verb To support or sustain; to preserve from sinking into ruin or despondency.
  4. verb To float; to rise like a buoy. "Rising merit will buoy up at last." Pope.

Etymology [D. boei buoy, fetter, fr. OF. boie, buie, chain, fetter, F. bouée a buoy, from L. boia. "Boiae genus vinculorum tam ferreae quam ligneae." Festus. So called because chained to its place.]

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