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

earthling

UK /ˈɜːθlɪŋ/ · US /ˈɝθlɪŋ/ noun

Forms earthlings

  1. noun (obsolete except historical) One who tills the earth; a farmer, a husbandman, a ploughman.
  2. noun An inhabitant of Earth, as opposed to one of heaven. [from 16th c.]
  3. noun (chiefly science fiction) An inhabitant of Earth, as opposed to one of another planet; specifically, a sentient member of any species native to Earth. [from 20th c.]
  4. noun (archaic) A person who is materialistic or worldly; a worldling. [from 17th c.]

Synonyms

Earthican Tellurian Terran Earthan Earther Earthian Earthie Earthlet Earthperson Earthsider Gaian Terrestrial Terrestrian earthman worldling

Antonyms

alien extraterrestrial ET little green man LGM xenomorph

Etymology

From Middle English erthling (“farmer, ploughman”) [and other forms] (in glossaries), from Old English ierþling, eorþling (“farmer, husbandman, ploughman”) [and other forms], from eorþe (“ground; dirt; planet Earth”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (“earth”)) + -ling (suffix forming personal nouns). The English word is analysable as earth + -ling.

See Earthling.

From earth + -ling (suffix indicating a resident); earth is ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (“earth”). Old English ierþling (“farmer, husbandman, ploughman”, literally “one of the earth”) is formed from the same roots but generally did not outlive Old English; all modern uses are historical: see earthling. Compare also human, which is derived from Latin humus (“ground, soil”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An inhabitant of the earth; a mortal.

Etymology [Earth + -ling.]

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