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

clever

UK /ˈklɛv.ə/ · US /ˈklɛv.ɚ/ adjective, proper noun

Forms cleverer cleverest

  1. adjective Nimble with hands or body; dexterous; skillful; adept.
  2. adjective Quick to understand, learn, and devise or apply ideas; intelligent.
  3. adjective Mentally quick and resourceful; skilled at achieving what one wants in a mentally agile and inventive way. “clever like a fox”
  4. adjective Smart, intelligent, or witty; mentally quick or sharp.
  5. adjective (archaic) Sane; in one's right mind.
  6. adjective (of objects or actions) Showing mental quickness and resourcefulness. “This is a simple but clever trick to solve the problem.”
  7. adjective (of objects or actions) Showing inventiveness or originality; witty.
  8. adjective (UK, colloquial, chiefly in the negative) Fit and healthy; free from fatigue or illness.
  9. proper noun A city in Missouri.

Synonyms

adroit talented cunning street-smart quick-witted sharp-witted ingenious crafty magical cagey cagy canny apt

Antonyms

dull stupid ineffectual naive clumsy antonym(s) of

Etymology

From East Anglian dialectal English cliver (“expert at seizing”), from Middle English cliver (“tenacious”).
* perhaps from Old English *clifer, clibbor (“clinging”);
* or perhaps from Dutch, Low German, or East/Saterland Frisian (compare kluftich (“clever, prudent”), probably derived from Proto-West Germanic *kleuban (“to cleave, split”));
* or dialectal Norwegian klover (“ready, skillful”), itself borrowed from Middle Low German klever, related to kleven (“to stick”), from Old Saxon klibōn, from Proto-West Germanic *klibēn, related to the Old English word above;
* possibly influenced by Old English clifer (“claw, hand”) (compare clawian (“to claw”)).
Related to cleave. Perhaps influenced by Welsh celfydd (“talented, dexterous, expert”).
Compare typologically Czech chytrý, Russian хи́трый (xítryj) (akin to хвата́ть (xvatátʹ)), also note схва́тывать на лету́ (sxvátyvatʹ na letú).

* Rhymes: -ɛvə(ɹ)

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Possessing quickness of intellect, skill, dexterity, talent, or adroitness; expert.
  2. adjective Showing skill or adroitness in the doer or former; as, a clever speech; a clever trick. Byron.

Etymology [Origin uncertain. Cf. OE. cliver eager, AS. clyfer (in comp.) cloven; or clifer a claw, perh. connected with E. cleave to divide, split, the meaning of E. clever perh. coming from the idea of grasping, seizing (with the mind).]

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

Sanskrit

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

All 144 Sanskrit matches →