Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iː	see	ɪ	sit	e / ɛ	bed	æ	cat
ɑː	father	ɒ	hot (UK)	ɔː	law	ʊ	put
uː	too	ʌ	cup	ɜː	bird	ə	about
eɪ	day	aɪ	my	ɔɪ	boy	aʊ	now
əʊ / oʊ	go (UK / US)	ɪə	near	eə	hair	ʊə	tour

Consonants that look unusual

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

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

cromlech

UK /ˈkɹɒmlɛk/ · US /ˈkɹɑmˌlɛk/ noun

Forms cromlechs

noun Synonym of stone circle (“a prehistoric monument consisting of standing stones arranged in a circle”), especially one located in Brittany, France.
noun (UK, chiefly Wales) synonym of altar tomb or dolmen (“a prehistoric megalithic tomb consisting of a (somewhat) flat capstone lying horizontally on two or more upright stones”), especially one located in Wales, but also in England (chiefly Cornwall and Devon) or Ireland.

Synonyms

stone circle altar tomb or dolmen bowing stone dolmen portal tomb

Etymology

Borrowed from Welsh cromlech, from crom, the feminine singular form of crwm (“bent, bowed, curved”).
Sense 1 (“stone circle”) is from Breton cromlec'h, krommlec'h probably from Welsh cromlech: see above.

Webster’s 1913

noun A monument of rough stones composed of one or more large ones supported in a horizontal position upon others. They are found chiefly in countris inhabited by the ancient Celts, and are of a period anterior to the introduction of Christianity into these countries.

Etymology [W. cromlech; crom bending or bent, concave + llech a flat stone; akin to Ir. cromleac.]

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