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

distaff

UK /ˈdɪstɑːf/ · US /ˈdɪstæf/ noun, adjective

Forms distaffs distaves distaffe

  1. noun A device to which a bundle of natural fibres (often wool, flax, or cotton) is attached for temporary storage, before being drawn off gradually to spin thread. A traditional distaff is a staff with flax fibres tied loosely to it (as indicated by the etymology of the word), but modern distaffs are often made of cords weighted with beads, and attached to the wrist.
  2. noun The part of a spinning wheel from which fibre is drawn to be spun.
  3. noun Anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only.
  4. noun A race for female horses only.
  5. noun (also collective) A woman, or women considered as a group.
  6. adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of women.
  7. adjective Of the maternal side of a family.

Synonyms

female maternal

Antonyms

male paternal spear

Etymology

From Middle English distaf (“distaff”), from Old English distæf (“distaff”), from *dis- (“bunch of flax”) (cognate with Middle Low German dise (“bunch of flax on a distaff”)) + stæf (“staff”) (from Proto-Germanic *stabaz (“staff, stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ-). Senses 3 and 5 (“anything traditionally done by or considered of importance to women only”; “a woman, or women considered as a group”) refer to the fact that spinning was traditionally done by women.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The staff for holding a bunch of flax, tow, or wool, from which the thread is drawn in spinning by hand.
  2. noun Used as a symbol of the holder of a distaff; hence, a woman; women, collectively.

Etymology [OE. distaf, dysestafe, AS. distaef; cf. LG. diesse the bunch of flax on a distaff, and E. dizen. See Staff.]

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “distaff” (best matches first).