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

fritter

UK /ˈfɹɪtə(ɹ)/ · US /ˈfɹɪtɚ/ noun, verb

Forms fritters frittering frittered

  1. noun Synonym of pancake, a portion of batter fried on a pan.
  2. noun A dish made by coating various other foods in batter and frying or deep-frying them together, typically in small portions.
  3. noun (figurative, uncommon) A fragment; a shred; a small piece.
  4. verb (intransitive, often with about, around, or away) To squander or waste time, money, or other resources; e.g. occupy oneself idly or without clear purpose, to tinker with an unimportant part of a project, to dally, sometimes as a form of procrastination. “I was supposed to do work, but I frittered around all afternoon.”
  5. verb (transitive) To sinter.
  6. verb (transitive) To cut (meat etc.) into small pieces for frying.
  7. verb (transitive) To break into small pieces or fragments.

Synonyms

pancake frivol away dissipate shoot fritter away fool fool away

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English fryture, from Middle French friture, from Old French friture, from Vulgar Latin *frīctūra, from Latin frīgō (“to fry”); compare fry.
For the development of Middle English /iu̯r(ə)/ into /ə(ɹ)/, compare armour, batter, border, solder.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A small quantity of batter, fried in boiling lard or in a frying pan. Fritters are of various kinds, named from the substance inclosed in the batter; as, apple fritters, clam fritters, oyster fritters.
  2. noun A fragment; a shred; a small piece.
  3. verb To cut, as meat, into small pieces, for frying.
  4. verb To break into small pieces or fragments.

Etymology [OR. fritour, friture, pancake, F. friture frying, a thing fried, from frire to fry. See Far, v. t.]

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