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

frankenstein

/ˈfɹæŋ.kən.staɪn/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms frankensteins frankensteining frankensteined

  1. noun (sports) A stretch in which one walks forward with their arms extended while kicking their legs forward to touch their hands.
  2. verb (sports) To perform the frankenstein stretch.
  3. proper noun Various small towns in Germany.
  4. proper noun (historical) Former name of Ząbkowice Śląskie: a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland.
  5. proper noun (countable) A surname from German.
  6. proper noun (fiction) Victor Frankenstein, a fictional character and the main protagonist and title character in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
  7. proper noun (fiction, sometimes proscribed) The unnamed monster created by Victor Frankenstein: a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus as the main antagonist.
  8. noun (sometimes proscribed) A monster composed of body parts from various corpses attached and brought back to life by a mad scientist, typically strong, unable to speak clearly, and misunderstood.
  9. noun Synonym of mad scientist.
  10. verb (transitive, colloquial) To combine two or more similar elements into a consistent entity, or a cohesive idea.

Synonyms

Franky//Frankie Doctor Frankenstein//Dr Frankenstein Frankensteinian monster//frankensteinian monster monster Dr Frankenstein//Dr. Frankenstein//Doctor Frankenstein frankenstein doctor//Frankenstein doctor frankensteinian doctor//Frankensteinian doctor mad scientist Frankenstein's monster

Etymology

From German Frankenstein, various places named for Franken (“Franks, Frankish”) + Stein (“stone”). The use of referencing mad scientists derives from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, where Victor Frankenstein assembles a man from pieces of various corpses and brings him to life with electricity. Use of the reference to the monster itself is an ellipsis of the earlier Frankenstein's monster, with the monster's usual modern appearance derived from Boris Karloff's performance in the 1931 film Frankenstein.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “frankenstein”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details