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

gambit

/ˈɡæmbɪt/ noun, verb

Forms gambits gambiting gambited gambett

  1. noun (chess) An opening in chess in which material is sacrificed to gain an advantage. “Her clever gambit gave her an advantage.”
  2. noun Any ploy or stratagem. “Their promise to lower taxes is clearly an election-year gambit.”
  3. noun A remark intended to open a conversation.
  4. verb (chess, transitive) To sacrifice (a pawn or minor piece) to gain an advantage.

Synonyms

ploy stratagem

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian gambetto (“act of tripping; gambit”), from gamba (“leg”) + -etto (diminutive suffix). First attested in 1656.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A mode of opening the game, in which a pawn is sacrificed to gain an attacking position.

Etymology [F. gambit, cf. It. gambitto gambit, a tripping up. See Gambol, n.]

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