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

ambition

/æmˈbɪʃ.ən/ noun, verb

Forms ambitions ambitioning ambitioned

  1. noun (uncountable, countable) Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people. “My daughter, Johanna, wants to be a firefighter very much. She has a lot of ambition.”
  2. noun (countable) An object of an ardent desire. “My ambition is to own a helicopter.”
  3. noun A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
  4. noun (uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
  5. noun (obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.
  6. verb To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.

Synonyms

aspiration dream ambitiousness

Etymology

From Middle English ambicioun, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambitiō (“ambition, a striving for favor, literally 'a going around', especially of candidates for office in Rome soliciting votes”), from ambiō (“to go around, solicit votes”). See ambient, issue. By surface analysis, ambit + -ion.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing. [Obs.]
  2. noun An eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment of something.
  3. verb To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. [R.]

Etymology [F. ambition, L. ambitio a going around, especially of candidates for office is Rome, to solicit votes (hence, desire for office or honorambire to go around. See Ambient, Issue.]

Etymology [Cf. F. ambitionner.]

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “ambition” (best matches first).