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

filibuster

UK /ˈfɪlɪbʌstə(ɹ)/ · US /ˈfɪləˌbəstər/ noun, verb

Forms filibusters filibustering filibustered fillibuster

  1. noun (historical) A mercenary soldier; a freebooter; specifically, a mercenary who travelled illegally in an organized group from the United States to a country in Central America or the Spanish West Indies in the mid-19th century seeking economic and political benefits through armed force.
  2. noun (US politics) A tactic (such as giving long, often irrelevant speeches) employed to delay the proceedings of, or the making of a decision by, a legislative body, particularly the United States Senate.
  3. noun (US politics) A member of a legislative body causing such an obstruction.
  4. verb To take part in a private military action in a foreign country.
  5. verb (originally and chiefly US politics, intransitive, transitive) To use obstructionist tactics in a legislative body.

Synonyms

adventurer bravo condottiere freebooter freelance free companion hired gun hireling hit man merc mercenary private military contractor sellsword soldier of fortune filibusterer

Antonyms

cloture

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish filibustero (“pirate”), from French flibustier, ultimately from Dutch vrijbuiter (“freebooter”), from vrij (“free”) + buit (“booty”) + -er (“agent”). The alteration in the first syllable in French is due to the word's being somewhat conflated with vlieboot (“light, flat-bottomed cargo vessel with two or three masts”) when it was borrowed into French or another language from Dutch. The word is cognate and analogous to English freebooter.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A lawless military adventurer, especially one in quest of plunder; a freebooter; --originally applied to buccaneers infesting the Spanish American coasts, but introduced into common English to designate the followers of Lopez in his expedition to Cuba in 1851, and those of Walker in his expedition to Nicaragua, in 1855.
  2. verb To act as a filibuster, or military freebooter. Bartlett.
  3. verb To delay legislation, by dilatory motions or other artifices.

Etymology [Sp. flibuster, flibustero, corrupted fr. E. freebooter. See Freebooter.]

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