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

dowager

UK /ˈdaʊədʒə/ · US /ˈdaʊəd͡ʒɚ/ noun

Forms dowagers

  1. noun A widow holding property or title derived from her late husband. “A reclusive dowager owned the pastures across the river, and her farmhands ran beef cattle on them.”
  2. noun The widow of the holder of a title (usually a member of the peerage or a baronet); used in combination with the title she held during her husband's lifetime. “the Earl and Countess of Whiteacre, and the Earl's mother, the dowager Countess of Whiteacre”
  3. noun Any lady of dignified bearing, especially an older one. “A stately dowager entered the ballroom, and all eyes were upon her.”

Etymology

From Middle French douagere, douagiere, from douage (“dower”), from the verb douer (“to endow”), from Latin dōtō (“to endow”), from dōs (“dowry”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A widow endowed, or having a jointure; a widow who either enjoys a dower from her deceased husband, or has property of her own brought by her to her husband on marriage, and settled on her after his decease. Blount. Burrill.
  2. noun A title given in England to a widow, to distinguish her from the wife of her husband's heir bearing the same name; --chiefly applied to widows of personages of rank.

Etymology [OF. douagiere, fr. douage dower. See Dower.]

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