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

hecatomb

UK /ˈhɛkətuːm/ · US /ˈhɛkətoʊm/ noun, verb

Forms hecatombs hecatombing hecatombed

  1. noun (Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, historical) A great public sacrifice to the gods, originally of a hundred oxen; also, a great number of animals reserved for such a sacrifice.
  2. noun (by extension, religion, historical) A great public sacrifice in other religions; also, a great number of animals or people reserved for such a sacrifice.
  3. noun (figuratively, literary and poetic) A great number of animals, people, or things that are sacrificed or destroyed; any great sacrifice; also (generally), a large amount.
  4. verb (transitive) To provide (someone or something) with a hecatomb.

Synonyms

abundance battalion arseload assload bellyload boatload brimful busload bucketful bucketload butt-ton bumload buttload cartload crapflood crapload deal fuckload fuckton fuckwad

Etymology

The noun is a learned borrowing from Latin hecatombē (“great sacrifice of a hundred oxen, hecatomb”), from Ancient Greek ἑκατόμβη (hekatómbē, “great sacrifice of a hundred oxen, hecatomb; any animal sacrifice or large sacrifice”, from ἑκᾰτόν (hekătón, “hundred”) + βοῦς (boûs, “cattle, cow, ox”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A sacrifice of a hundred oxen or cattle at the same time; hence, the sacrifice or slaughter of any large number of victims.

Etymology [L. hecatombe, Gr. hécatombe.]

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