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

charade

UK /ʃəˈɹɑːd/ · US /ʃəˈɹeɪd/ noun, verb

Forms charades charading charaded

  1. noun (literature, archaic) A genre of riddles where the clues to the answer are descriptions or puns on its syllables, with a final clue to the whole.
  2. noun (uncommon) A single round of the game charades, an acted form of the earlier riddles.
  3. noun (obsolete) A play resembling the game charades, particularly due to poor acting.
  4. noun A deception or pretense, originally an absurdly obvious one but now in general use. “This whole charade is absurd.”
  5. noun (crosswording) A form of wordplay where several words are placed together to form a new word or part thereof.
  6. verb To act out a charade (of); to gesture; to pretend.

Synonyms

acted charade dumb charade farce sham parody lampoon spoof sendup mockery takeoff burlesque travesty pasquinade put-on

Etymology

From French charade, charrade (“prattle, idle conversation; a kind of riddle”), probably from Occitan charrada (“conversation; chatter”), from charrar (“to chat; to chatter”) + -ada. As a round of the game, originally a clipping of acting charade but now usually understood and formed as a back-formation from charades.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A verbal or acted enigma based upon a word which has two or more significant syllables or parts, each of which, as well as the word itself, is to be guessed from the descriptions or representations.

Etymology [F. charade, cf. Pr. charrada long chat, It ciarlare to chat, whence E. charlatan.]

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “charade” (best matches first).