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

echelon

UK /ˈɛʃ.ə.lɒn/ · US /ˈɛʃ.əˌlɑn/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun

Forms echelons echeloning echeloned

  1. noun A level or rank in an organization, profession, or society.
  2. noun (cycling) A line of riders seeking maximum drafting in a crosswind, resulting in a diagonal line across the road.
  3. noun (military) A formation of troops, ships, aircraft, etc., in diagonal parallel rows.
  4. verb (transitive, military) To form troops into an echelon.
  5. adjective (linear algebra) Of a matrix: having undergone Gaussian elimination with the result that the leading coefficient or pivot (that is, the first nonzero number from the left) of a nonzero row is to the right of the pivot of the row above it, giving rise to a stepped appearance in the matrix.
  6. proper noun An international SIGINT network to monitor and gather intelligence from satellite trunk communications.

Synonyms

rung

Etymology

Borrowed from French échelon (“rung; echelon”), from échelle (“ladder”) + -on (diminutive suffix). Échelle is derived from Latin scāla (“ladder”), from scandō (“to ascend, climb”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An arrangement of a body of troops when its divisions are drawn up in parallel lines each to the right or the left of the one in advance of it, like the steps of a ladder in position for climbing.
  2. noun An arrangement of a fleet in a wedge or Encyc. Dict. Echelon lens (Optics), a large lens constructed in several parts or layers, extending in a succession of annular rings beyond the central lens; - -used in lighthouses.
  3. verb To place in echelon; to station divisions of troops in echelon.
  4. verb To take position in echelon.

Etymology [F., fr. échelle ladder, fr. L. scala.]

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