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

cackle

/ˈkækəl/ noun, verb

Forms cackles cackling cackled

  1. noun The cry of a hen or goose, especially when laying an egg.
  2. noun A laugh resembling the cry of a hen or goose.
  3. noun Futile or excessively noisy talk.
  4. noun (collective) A group of hyenas.
  5. verb (intransitive) To make a sharp, broken noise or cry, as a hen or goose does.
  6. verb (intransitive) To laugh with a broken sound similar to a hen's cry. “The witch cackled evilly.”
  7. verb (intransitive) To talk in a silly manner; to prattle.
  8. verb (transitive, gambling, slang) To pretend to rattle (dice) in one's hand while gripping them so that they maintain their orientation.

Synonyms

yak yack yakety-yak chatter

Etymology

From Middle English caclen, cakelen, perhaps from Old English *caclian, *cacolian, from Proto-West Germanic *kakulōn, *kakilōn (“to cackle, gaggle, yelp, snarl”), perhaps of imitative origin. By surface analysis, cack + -le.
Compare Dutch kakelen (“to cackle”), German Low German kakeln (“to cackle”), German kakeln (“to blather”), Danish kagle (“to cackle”), Swedish kackla (“to cackle”). Compare also Old English cahhetan, ċeahhettan (“to laugh loudly; cackle”), German gackern (“to cackle”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To make a sharp, broken noise or cry, as a hen or goose does.
  2. verb To laugh with a broken noise, like the cackling of a hen or a goose; to giggle. Arbuthnot.
  3. noun The sharp broken noise made by a goose or by a hen that has laid an egg. By her cackle saved the state. Dryden.
  4. noun Idle talk; silly prattle.

Etymology [OE. cakelen; cf. LG. kakeln, D. kakelen, G. gackeln, gackern; all of imitative origin. Cf. Gagle, Cake to cackle.]

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