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

cant

/kænt/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun

Forms cants canting canted kant

  1. noun (countable) An argot, the jargon of a particular class or subgroup. “He had the look of a prince, but the cant of a fishmonger.”
  2. noun (countable, uncountable) A private or secret language used by a religious sect, gang, or other group.
  3. noun A language spoken by some Irish Travellers; Shelta.
  4. noun (uncountable, derogatory) Empty, hypocritical talk.
  5. noun (uncountable) Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
  6. noun (countable, heraldry) A blazon of a coat of arms that makes a pun upon the name (or, less often, some attribute or function) of the bearer, canting arms.
  7. noun (obsolete) A call for bidders at a public fair; an auction.
  8. verb (intransitive) To speak with the jargon of a class or subgroup.
  9. verb (intransitive) To speak in set phrases.
  10. verb (intransitive) To talk, beg, or preach in a singsong or whining fashion, especially in a false or empty manner.
  11. verb (intransitive, heraldry) Of a blazon, to make a pun that references the bearer of a coat of arms.
  12. verb (obsolete) To sell by auction, or bid at an auction.
  13. noun (obsolete) Side, edge, corner, niche. “under the cant of a hill”
  14. noun Slope, the angle at which something is set.
  15. noun A corner (of a building).
  16. noun An outer or external angle.
  17. noun An inclination from a horizontal or vertical line; a slope or bevel; a tilt.
  18. noun A movement or throw that overturns something.
  19. noun A sudden thrust, push, kick, or other impulse, producing a bias or change of direction; also, the bias or turn so given. “to give a ball a cant”
  20. noun (coopering) A segment forming a side piece in the head of a cask.

Synonyms

argot jargon slang corner bevel slope tilt buzzword bank camber lingo patois vernacular pious platitude chamfer cant over slant pitch

Etymology

From Latin cantō, probably via Old Northern French canter (“sing, tell”). Doublet of chant.

From Middle English cant (“edge, brink”), from Middle Dutch cant (“point, side, edge”) (Modern Dutch kant (“side, edge”)), ultimately of Celtic or Latin origin. Related to Medieval Latin cantus (“corner, side”), from Latin canthus.

Unknown, but compare Provençal cantel (“corner, piece”) or Old Northern French cantel (“piece broken off”). The verb is attested from the 15th century, and the noun from the 16th. See cantle, from which cant is possibly back-formed as if it contained the suffix -le.

From Middle English cant, kaunt, presumably from Middle Low German *kant, perhaps a slang word related to kant (“edge, rim”), from Medieval Latin canthus. Attested from the 13th or 14th century.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A corner; angle; niche. [Obs.]
  2. noun An outer or external angle.
  3. verb To incline; to set at an angle; to titl over; to tip upon the edge; as, to cant a cask; to cant a ship.
  4. verb To give a sudden turn or new direction to; as, to cant round a stick of timber; to cant a football.

Etymology [OF., edge, angle, prof. from L. canthus the iron ring round a carriage wheel, a wheel, Gr. cant the stake or tire of a wheel. Cf. Canthus, Canton, Cantle.]

Etymology [Prob. from OF. cant, F. chant, singing, in allusion to the singing or whining tine of voice used by beggars, fr. L. cantus. See Chant.]

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