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

escalator

UK /ˈɛs.kə.leɪ.tə/ · US /ˈɛs.kə.leɪ.tɚ/ noun, verb

Forms escalators escalatoring escalatored

  1. noun Anything that escalates.
  2. noun A motor-driven mechanical device consisting of a continuous loop of steps that automatically conveys people from one floor to another. “There is a plastic molly-guard covering the escalator's shutdown button to prevent little kids from pushing it and stopping the escalator.”
  3. noun An upward or progressive course.
  4. noun An escalator clause. “They agreed to a cost-of-living escalator.”
  5. verb (intransitive, informal) To move by escalator. “We escalatored to the second floor.”

Synonyms

moving staircase escalate escalator clause moving stairway

Etymology

By genericization from the former trademark Escalator, created by American inventor Charles Seeberger in 1900, from Latin ē- (“from, out of”) + scala (“ladder”) + -tor, which forms nouns of agency; see the appendix. Broader usage may be influenced by its derivative escalate, by surface analysis, escalate + -or. For an alternative etymology, see the Online Etymology Dictionary.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A stairway or incline arranged like an endless belt so that the steps or treads ascend or descend continuously, and one stepping upon it is carried up or down; --a trade term.

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