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

buttonhole

/ˈbʌtənˌhoʊl/ noun, verb

Forms buttonholes buttonholing buttonholed button-hole button hole

  1. noun A hole through which a button is pushed to secure a garment or some part of one.
  2. noun (chiefly UK) A flower worn in a buttonhole for decoration.
  3. noun (attributive) So shaped that it can be worn on a buttonhole or it is similar to a buttonhole.
  4. noun (surgery) A small slotlike cut or incision, made for example by an accident with the scalpel.
  5. noun The mouth, nose or eyes of a tiny appearance.
  6. noun (obsolete) The vagina, a coin slot.
  7. noun (lightly vulgar) The butthole (anus).
  8. verb (transitive, colloquial) To detain (a person) in conversation against their will.
  9. verb (ambitransitive) To cut one or more buttonholes (in).
  10. verb (transitive) To sew by buttonhole stitch.
  11. verb (transitive, surgery, chiefly archaic) To make a small slot-like incision in (intentionally or unintentionally).
  12. verb (transitive, rare) To apply a flowery formation in.
  13. verb (intransitive, archaic, rare) To attain buttonhole-like formations on cutting.

Synonyms

boutonniere axe wound bearded clam beaver berk bonne bouche box bun bush cavern clunge coin slot cooch coochie cookie cooter cooze crack crevice cunny button hole lobby

Etymology

Originally buttonhold (“a loop of string to hold a button down”), but changed by folk etymology by influence of hole. By surface analysis, button + hole.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The hole or loop in which a button is caught.
  2. verb To hold at the button or buttonhole; to detain in conversation to weariness; to bore; as, he buttonholed me a quarter of an hour.

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