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

amazon

UK /ˈæm.ə.zən/ · US /ˈæm.əˌzɑn/ noun, proper noun, verb

Forms amazons the Amazon Amazoning Amazoned

  1. noun A tall, strong, athletic woman. “Although the evidence for real Amazons is thin, women athletes are often dubbed amazons.”
  2. noun (chess) A fairy chess piece which combines the moves of the queen and the knight.
  3. noun An amazon parrot.
  4. noun A position for vaginal sex in which the insertive partner lies on their back with their knees pulled back, and the receptive partner, facing the other person, squats onto the penis.
  5. noun (Greek mythology) A member of a mythical race of female warriors inhabiting the Black Sea area.
  6. noun A female warrior.
  7. noun A tall, strong, or athletic woman.
  8. proper noun (sometimes attributive) A river in South America, that flows through Brazil for about 4000 miles to the Atlantic.
  9. proper noun (sometimes attributive) A region including much of this river; specifically, the region of the Amazon Rainforest, or of the Amazon River Basin.
  10. noun Any of the large parrots from the genus Amazona.
  11. proper noun Amazon.com Inc., a very large Internet retailer.
  12. verb (transitive) To overwhelm or obliterate, in the context of an Internet start-up vastly outperforming its brick and mortar competition.
  13. verb (transitive) To order (something) on Amazon.

Synonyms

virago Amazon River

Antonyms

mating press

Etymology

From Amazon, from Ancient Greek Ἀμαζών (Amazṓn).

From Middle English, from Latin, from Ancient Greek Ἀμαζών (Amazṓn); perhaps Ionian Greek pronunciation of Old Persian *hamazan- (“warrior”), as the Amazon women were known warriors. A popular folk etymology, of Ancient Greek provenance, claims that the word derives from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + μαζός (mazós, “breast”), referencing the belief that Amazons cut off their right breast so that it would not hinder their ability to fire a bow or throw a spear.

From Spanish Río Amazonas. It is common belief that the Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana fought a battle against a tribe of Tapuya natives, in which the women fought alongside the men, and that he derived the name from the Amazons in Greek mythology.

Chosen by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as a word beginning with 'A' which had existing connotations (see meanings listed in etymologies 1 & 2) of being exotic, different, and (as the Amazon River) the largest of its kind in the world.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun One of a fabulous race of female warriors in Scythia; hence, a female warrior.
  2. noun A tall, strong, masculine woman; a virago.

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