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

hornbeam

UK /ˈhɔːnbiːm/ · US /ˈhoɹnˌbim/ noun

Forms hornbeams

  1. noun (countable) A tree of the genus Carpinus, having smooth grey bark and a ridged trunk, the wood being white and very hard, found in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
  2. noun Especially, the American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), which is common along the banks of streams in the United States.
  3. noun Especially, the common hornbeam or European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus).
  4. noun (uncountable) The wood of these trees or one species of them; (countable) a sample of such wood.
  5. noun (zootomy) Synonym of beam (“the principal stem of the antler of a deer, which branches grow out from”).
  6. noun (obsolete) A beam or ray of light emanating from the head of a deity like a horn.

Synonyms

hardbeam beam

Etymology

From Late Middle English hornbeme, hernbem, hernebem (“European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)”), from horn (“antler or horn of an animal; etc.”) + bem (“tree; piece of metal, wood, etc.”) (referring to a tree with wood as hard as horn):
* Horn is from Old English horn (“horn”), from Proto-West Germanic *horn (“horn”), from Proto-Germanic *hurną (“horn”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“horn; head, top”).
* Bem is from Old English bēam (“tree; piece of wood”), from Proto-West Germanic *baum (“tree; piece of wood”), possibly from Proto-Germanic *bagmaz (“tree; piece of wood”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂ǵʰ-mo-s (“branch”) or *bʰuH- (“to appear; to be; to become; to grow”).
By surface analysis, horn + beam (“only in compounds: tree”).

From horn + beam (“principal stem of the antler of a deer; ray of light”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A tree of the genus Carpinus (C. Americana), having a smooth gray bark and a ridged trunk, the wood being white and very hard. It is common along the banks of streams in the United States, and is also called ironwood. The English hornbeam is C. Betulus. The American is called also blue beech and water beech. Hop hornbeam.

Etymology [See Beam.]

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