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

elf

/ɛlf/ noun, verb

Forms elves elfs elfing elfed elve

  1. noun (Germanic mythology) A supernatural being or spirit associated with illness, mischief, and harmful or dangerous magical influence; in later Norse sources, sometimes divided into benevolent light elves (inhabiting Álfheimr) and malevolent dark elves.
  2. noun (folklore) A small, magical creature similar to a fairy, often mischievous, playful, or occasionally helpful.
  3. noun (fantasy) A member of a race of tall, slender, graceful beings with pointed ears, typically immortal or very long-lived and possessing wisdom and magical abilities.
  4. noun (obsolete) A very diminutive person; a dwarf.
  5. noun (South Africa) Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix).
  6. verb (now rare) To twist into elflocks (of hair); to mat.

Synonyms

goblin fairy hob gremlin pixie pixy brownie imp extremely low frequency

Etymology

From Middle English elf, from Old English ielf, ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Ultimately probably derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”). Doublet of alf, awf, and oaf. The modern fantasy literature sense was popularised by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks.
  2. noun A very diminutive person; a dwarf. Elf arrow, a flint arrowhead; - -so called by the English rural folk who often find these objects of prehistoric make in the fields and formerly attributed them to fairies; --called also elf bolt, elf dart, and elf shot.
  3. verb To entangle mischievously, as an elf might do. Elf all my hair in knots. Shak.

Etymology [AS. ælf, ylf; akin to MHG. alp, G. alp nightmare, incubus, Icel. elf, Sw. alf, elfva; cf. Skr. rbhu skillful, artful, rabh to grasp. Cf. Auf, Oaf.]

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