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

culm

/ˈkʌlm/ noun, proper noun

Forms culms

  1. noun Waste coal, used as a poor quality fuel.
  2. noun The spoils from which such low-quality coal can be retrieved. “culm dump”
  3. noun Anthracite, especially when found in small masses.
  4. noun (botany) The stem of a plant, especially of grass or sedge.
  5. proper noun A German bishopric, founded in 1234.
  6. proper noun A river in Devon, England, which joins the River Exe near Stoke Canon.

Synonyms

slack tailings

Etymology

From Middle English culme, colme (“fragments of coal”), of uncertain origin. Probably from Old English *colm, related to Old English col (“coal”). Alternatively, perhaps from Welsh cwlm (“knot or tie”), applied to this species of coal, which is much found in balls or knots in some parts of Wales.

Borrowed from Latin culmus. Doublet of French calame, calamus, and haulm; further related to caramel, chalumeau and shawm.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The stalk or stem of grain and grasses (including the bamboo), jointed and usually hollow.

Etymology [L. culmus stark, stem; akin to colasmus. SeeHalm.]

Etymology [Perh. from W. cwlm knot or tie, applied to this species of coal, which is much found in balls or knots in some parts of Wales: cf. OE. culme smoke, soot.]

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