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

fluff

/flʌf/ noun, verb

Forms fluffs fluffing fluffed

  1. noun Anything light, soft or fuzzy, especially fur, hair, feathers.
  2. noun Anything inconsequential or superficial. “That article was basically a bunch of fluff. It didn't say anything substantive.”
  3. noun (informal) A lapse or mistake, especially a mistake in an actor's lines.
  4. noun (informal, slang) A cloth diaper.
  5. noun (New England) Marshmallow creme.
  6. noun (LGBTQ) A passive partner in a lesbian relationship.
  7. noun (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, euphemistic) A fart.
  8. noun (fandom slang) Fan fiction, or part of a fan fiction, which is sweet and feel-good in tone, usually involving romance.
  9. verb (transitive) To make something fluffy. “The cat fluffed its tail.”
  10. verb (intransitive) To become fluffy, puff up.
  11. verb (intransitive) To move lightly like fluff.
  12. verb (informal, transitive, intransitive, of an actor or announcer) To make a mistake in one's lines.
  13. verb (informal, transitive) To do incorrectly, for example mishit, miskick, miscue etc.
  14. verb (intransitive, Australia, euphemistic) To break wind, to fart.
  15. verb (transitive, slang) To arouse (a male pornographic actor) before filming.
  16. verb (transitive, slang, by extension) To bring to a state of excitement.

Synonyms

fuzz oose puff BS cruft hype all talk flub blooper blunder boo-boo defect error fault faux pas gaffe lapse mistake slip stumble bagatelle frippery frivolity botch bodge bumble fumble botch up muff blow

Etymology

From earlier floow (“woolly substance, down, nap, lint”), also spelt flough, flue, and flew, from West Flemish vluwe,
of uncertain ultimate origin:
* Compare Old English flōh (“that which is flown off, fragment, piece”); see flaw
* Possibly representing a blend of flue + puff; compare Middle Dutch vloe, or perhaps onomatopoeic; compare dialectal English floose, flooze, fleeze (“particles of wool or cotton; fluff; loose threads or fibres”), Danish fnug (“down, fluff”), Swedish fnugg (“speck, flake”).
* Alternatively, West Flemish vluwe may derive from French velu (“hairy, furry”), from Latin villūtus (“having shaggy hair”), from villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”).
For words of similar sound and meaning in other languages, compare Japanese フワフワ (fuwafuwa, “lightly, softly”), Hungarian puha (“soft, fluffy”), Polish puchaty (“soft, fluffy”), Romanian puf (“down, peachfuzz, soft hair of some animals, powderpuff”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Nap or down; flue; soft, downy feathers.

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