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

crux

/kɹʌks/ noun, proper noun

Forms cruxes cruces crocs

  1. noun The basic, central, or essential point or feature. “The crux of her argument was that the roadways needed repair before anything else could be accomplished.”
  2. noun The critical or transitional moment or issue, a turning point.
  3. noun A puzzle or difficulty.
  4. noun (climbing) The hardest point of a climb.
  5. noun (heraldry) A cross on a coat of arms.
  6. proper noun (astronomy) A distinctive winter constellation of the southern sky, shaped like a cross. It appears in the flags of several countries in Oceania.

Synonyms

core essence heart gist bowels sum brass tacks drift guts gravamen heart and soul heartstring heartstrings inwardness kernel marrow meat moral of the story nitty-gritty nub Southern Cross Crux Australis crux of the matter

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin crux (“cross, wooden frame for execution”), possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, to bend”). Doublet of cross and crouch (“cross”).

Learned borrowing from Latin crux (“a cross”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Anything that is very puzzling or difficult to explain. Dr.

Etymology [L., cross, torture, trouble.]

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