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

floss

UK /flɒs/ · US /flɔs/ noun, verb

Forms flosses flossing flossed

  1. noun A thread used to clean the gaps between the teeth.
  2. noun Raw silk fibres.
  3. noun The fibres covering a corncob etc.; the loose downy or silky material inside the husks of certain plants, such as beans.
  4. noun Any thread-like material having parallel strands that are not spun or wound around each other. “embroidery floss”
  5. noun (UK) Spun sugar or cotton candy, especially in the phrase "candy floss".
  6. noun A body feather of an ostrich. “Flosses are soft, and grey from the female and black from the male.”
  7. noun A dance move in which the dancer repeatedly swings their arms, with clenched fists, from the back of their body to the front, on each side.
  8. verb (ambitransitive) To clean the area between (the teeth) using floss. “I don't floss very often.”
  9. verb (slang, African-American Vernacular) To show off, especially by exhibiting one's wealth or talent.
  10. verb (intransitive) To perform the floss dance move.
  11. noun (UK) A small stream of water.
  12. noun Fluid glass floating on iron in the puddling furnace, produced by the vitrification of oxides and earths which are present.
  13. noun (Northern England, Scotland) The common rush (Juncus effusus).

Synonyms

flamboast high-side stunt aura farm boulevardier cut a wide swath cut it fat cut round exhibitionize figure away flaunt flex fluff one's feathers gallery let one's nuts hang ostent ostentate preen showboat show away dental floss

Etymology

* Possibly from French floche (“tuft of wool”), from floc, from Old French flosche (“down, velvet”), from Latin floccus (“piece of wool”), probably from Frankish *flokkō (“down, wool, flock”), from Proto-Germanic *flukkô (“down, piece of wool, flock”), from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“hair, fibres, tuft”).
* Or, from Middle English *flos (attested in Middle English Flosmonger (a surname)), from Proto-West Germanic *fleus, related to English fleece.
Cognate with Old High German flocko (“down”), Middle Dutch vlocke (“flock”), Norwegian dialectal flugsa (“snowflake”), Dutch flos (“plush”) (tr=17c.).

From dialectal flosh (“a flush, stream of water, sluice”), from Middle English flosche, flusche, flasche, flaske (“a watery or marshy place, swamp”), perhaps from Old French flache, from Middle Dutch vlacke (“a flat area, plain”), ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *fleutan. Compare also German Floss (“a float”).

Origin obscure. Perhaps of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian flos, flus (“rind, scale, strip peeled off”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The slender styles of the pistillate flowers of maize; also called silk.
  2. noun Untwisted filaments of silk, used in embroidering. Floss silk, silk that has been twisted, and which retains its loose and downy character. It is much used in embroidery. Called also floxed silk.
  3. noun A small stream of water. [Eng.]
  4. noun Fluid glass floating on iron in the puddling furnace, produced by the vitrification of oxides and earths which are present. Floss hole.

Etymology [It. floscio flabby, soft, fr. L. fluxus flowing, loose, slack. See Flux, n.]

Etymology [Cf. G. floss a float.]

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