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

cinch

/sɪntʃ/ noun, verb

Forms cinches cinching cinched

  1. noun A simple saddle girth used in Mexico.
  2. noun (informal) Something that is very easy to do.
  3. noun (informal) Something that is obvious or certain to occur; a sure thing.
  4. noun (informal) A firm hold.
  5. verb To bring to certain conclusion.
  6. verb To tighten down.
  7. noun (card games) A variety of auction pitch in which a draw to improve the hand is added, and the five of trumps (called "right Pedro") and the five of the same colour (called "left Pedro", and ranking between the five and the four of trumps) are each worth five. Fifty-one points make a game.
  8. verb (card games) In the game of cinch, to protect (a trick) by playing a higher trump than the five.
  9. noun (chiefly Europe, technology) An RCA connector.

Synonyms

piece of cake sure thing breeze double Pedro high five picnic snap duck soup child's play pushover walkover girth

Etymology

Borrowed from Occitan cencha, from Latin cincta, or from Spanish cincha (“a belt or girth”), from Late Latin cingula, from Latin cingulum. Doublet of cingle.

Compare senses at etymology 1 (a girth, a tight grip), perhaps suggesting the tactics used in the game; or perhaps from Spanish cinco (“five”), the five spots of the colour of the trump being important cards.

Uncertain; perhaps from Cinch Connectors, a Chicago-based company producing connectors.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A strong saddle girth, as of canvas. [West. U. S.]
  2. noun A tight grip. [Colloq.]

Etymology [Sp. cincha, fr. L. cingere to gird.]

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