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

cove

UK /kəʊv/ · US /koʊv/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms coves coving coved the Cove couve

  1. noun (now uncommon) A hollow in a rock; a cave or cavern.
  2. noun (architecture) A concave vault or archway, especially the arch of a ceiling.
  3. noun A small coastal inlet, especially one having high cliffs protecting vessels from prevailing winds; bight.
  4. noun (US) A strip of prairie extending into woodland.
  5. noun (Cumbria) A recess or sheltered area on the slopes of a mountain.
  6. noun (nautical) The wooden roof of the stern gallery of an old sailing warship.
  7. noun (nautical) A thin line, sometimes gilded, along a yacht's strake below deck level.
  8. noun (Appalachia) A valley between two ridges, especially one that, opening to the south and east, is protected by ridges on the north and west from common winter storm tracks.
  9. verb (architecture) To arch over; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove.
  10. noun (thieves' cant, dated, UK, particularly Lewis) Man; fellow.
  11. noun (Australia and Polari) Friend; mate.
  12. verb (ambitransitive, obsolete) Of a bird or other animal: to brood, cover, incubate, or sit over (eggs).
  13. proper noun An unincorporated community in Apache County, Arizona.
  14. proper noun A town in Polk County, Arkansas.
  15. proper noun An unincorporated community in McDonald County, Missouri.
  16. proper noun A minor city in Union County, Oregon.
  17. proper noun A minor city in Chambers County, Texas.
  18. proper noun A census-designated place in Cache County, Utah.
  19. proper noun A small village in Tiverton parish, Mid Devon district, Devon, England (OS grid ref SS9519).
  20. proper noun A suburb of Farnborough, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU8556).

Synonyms

bloke boy bro broski bruh cat chap chappy chield covey dog [⇒ thesaurus] (slang) dawg dude fella fellow gadgie gate geezer gink gloak

Antonyms

covess mort blone babe baggage bim bint bird bitch broad chick dame

Etymology

From Middle English cove, from Old English cofa (“chamber; den”), from Proto-West Germanic *kobō, from Proto-Germanic *kubô. Cognate with Dutch koof (“cove”), German Low German Koov (“small room”), German Koben (“nook, shed”), Icelandic kofi (“hut, shack”). This word has probably survived as long as it has due to its coincidental phonetic resemblance to the unrelated word English cave. Also unrelated to Spanish cueva, which itself is a cognate of cave.

Attested in Britain a. 1570, from Romani kodo (“this one, him”, pronounced /koðo/, ultimately undergoing th-fronting to /kov/ in English), or perhaps directly from Romani kova (“that person”).

Borrowed from French couver, from Old French cover (“to hatch (eggs)”), from Latin cubāre (“to lie down, recline; to incubate; to be broody”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb- (“to lie down”).

From Old English cofa (“cave, cove, hollow, cavern”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A retired nook; especially, a small, sheltered inlet, creek, or bay; a recess in the shore.
  2. noun A strip of prairie extending into woodland; also, a recess in the side of a mountain. [U.S.]
  3. verb To arch over; to build in a hollow concave form; to make in the form of a cove.
  4. verb To brood, cover, over, or sit over, as birds their eggs. [Obs.]

Etymology [AS. cofa room; akin to G. koben pigsty, orig., hut, Icel kofi hut, and perh. to E. cobalt.]

Etymology [CF. F. couver, It. covare. See Covey.]

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