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

howler

UK /ˈhaʊlə/ · US /ˈhaʊlɚ/ noun

Forms howlers

  1. noun That which howls, especially an animal such as a wolf or a howler monkey.
  2. noun (historical) A person hired to howl in mourning at a funeral.
  3. noun (slang) A painfully obvious mistake.
  4. noun (slang) A hilarious joke.
  5. noun (slang) A bitterly cold day.
  6. noun (psychology) A person who expresses aggression openly in the form of threats.
  7. noun (sometimes figurative) A heavy fall.
  8. noun (slang) A serious accident (especially to come a howler or go a howler; compare come a cropper). “Our hansom came a howler.”

Synonyms

belly laugh sidesplitter thigh-slapper scream wow riot howler monkey

Etymology

From howl + -er. Some senses are derivatives of the intensifier "howling", as in "howling wilderness", (Deuteronomy 32:10)

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun One who howls.
  2. noun Any South American monkey of the genus Mycetes. Many species are known. They are arboreal in their habits, and are noted for the loud, discordant howling in which they indulge at night.

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