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

chink

/t͡ʃɪŋk/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun

Also a form of kink

Forms chinks chinking chinked

  1. noun A narrow opening such as a fissure or crack.
  2. noun A narrow beam or patch of light admitted by such an opening. “I noticed a chink of light under the door.”
  3. noun A chip or dent in something metallic. “The warrior saw a chink in her enemy's armor, and aimed her spear accordingly.”
  4. noun (figuratively) A vulnerability or flaw in a protection system or in any otherwise formidable system. “The chink in the theory is that the invaders have superior muskets.”
  5. verb (transitive) To fill an opening such as the space between logs in a log house with chinking; to caulk. “to chink a wall”
  6. verb (intransitive) To crack; to open.
  7. verb (transitive) To cause to open in cracks or fissures.
  8. noun (countable) A slight sound as of metal objects touching each other; a clink.
  9. noun (uncountable, colloquial, dated, now rare) Ready money, especially in the form of coins.
  10. verb (intransitive) To make a slight sound like that of metal objects touching. “The coins were chinking in his pocket.”
  11. verb (transitive) To cause to make a sharp metallic sound, as coins, small pieces of metal, etc., by bringing them into collision with each other.
  12. noun (derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of perceived Chinese ethnicity or descent.
  13. noun (derogatory, by extension, offensive, ethnic slur) A person of perceived East Asian descent.
  14. noun (offensive, ethnic slur) A meal of Chinese food.
  15. adjective (derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) Chinese, or perceived to be Chinese.
  16. adjective (derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) East Asian.
  17. proper noun (derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) The Chinese language.

Synonyms

aperture chinky Chinaman gook ching chong click clink tinkle tink check

Etymology

Of uncertain origin, but apparently an extension, with diminutive -k (see more at -ock), of Middle English chine (or, if already suffixed in Middle English, *chinek), from Old English ċine (“a crack, chine, chink”), equivalent to chine + -k.

Onomatopoeic.

There are several possible origins of the term:
* From the Chinese courtesy ching-ching, a reduplication of Mandarin 請 /请 (qǐng, “please”). Compare chin-chin, Italian cincin, Portuguese tchim-tchim, tim-tim, Spanish chinchín, French tchin-tchin.
* From the alteration of China.
* From the alteration of Qing (also spelled Ch'ing).
See also Hokkien 親家 /亲家 (chhin-ke, “any relative by marriage (to a Chinese family)”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A small cleft, rent, or fissure, of greater length than breadth; a gap or crack; as, the chinks of wall.
  2. verb To crack; to open.
  3. verb To cause to open in cracks or fissures.
  4. verb To fill up the chinks of; as, to chink a wall.

Etymology [OE. chine, AS. cine fissure, chink, fr. cinan to gape; akin to Goth. Keinan to sprout, G. keimen. Cf. Chit.]

Etymology [Of imitative origin. Cf. Jingle.]

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