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

cryptic

/ˈkɹɪptɪk/ adjective, noun, proper noun

Forms cryptics the Cryptic cryptick

  1. adjective Having hidden (unapparent) meaning.
  2. adjective Mystified or of an obscure nature; not easy to perceive.
  3. adjective Involving use of a code or cipher.
  4. adjective (crosswording) Of a crossword puzzle, or a clue in such a puzzle, using, in addition to definitions, wordplay such as anagrams, homophones and hidden words to indicate solutions.
  5. adjective (zoology) Well camouflaged; having good camouflage. “Lonomia caterpillars are extremely cryptic.”
  6. adjective (zoology) Serving as camouflage. “cryptic colouring”
  7. adjective (biology, not comparable) Apparently identical, but actually genetically distinct. “cryptic species”
  8. adjective (zoology) Living in a cavity or small cave.
  9. noun (informal) A cryptic crossword puzzle.
  10. proper noun (geology) An epoch from 4567 to 4150 million years ago, a subdivision of the Prenectarian.

Synonyms

cryptozoic cryptical deep inscrutable mysterious mystifying cabalistic kabbalistic qabalistic sibylline

Etymology

From Late Latin crypticus, from Ancient Greek κρυπτικός (kruptikós), from κρυπτός (kruptós, “hidden”), from κρύπτω (krúptō, “to hide”). Doublet of kryptic.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Hidden; secret; occult. "Her [nature's] more cryptic ways of working." Glanvill.

Etymology [L. crypticus, Gr. Defn: Hidden; secret; occult. "Her [nature's]

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