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

lark

UK /lɑːk/ · US /lɑɹk/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms larks larking larked laverock lavrock

  1. noun Any of various small, singing passerine birds of the family Alaudidae.
  2. noun Any of various similar-appearing birds, but usually ground-living, such as the meadowlark and titlark.
  3. noun (by extension) One who wakes early; one who is up with the larks.
  4. noun A jolly or peppy person.
  5. verb (intransitive) To catch larks (a type of bird). “to go larking”
  6. noun A frolic or romp, some fun.
  7. noun A prank.
  8. verb To sport, engage in harmless pranking.
  9. verb To frolic, engage in carefree adventure.
  10. proper noun A surname transferred from the nickname, from lark as a byname or for a catcher and seller of larks.
  11. proper noun A surname originating as a patronymic shortened from Larkin, a medieval diminutive of Laurence.
  12. proper noun A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
  13. proper noun A female given name from English from the lark bird.
  14. proper noun A river in England, on the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

Synonyms

early bird early riser whim especially in phrase on a whim meadowlark pipit titlark escapade frolic rollick skylark disport sport cavort gambol frisk romp run around lark about

Antonyms

owl

Etymology

From Middle English larke, laverke, from Old English lāwerce, lǣwerce, lāuricæ, from Proto-West Germanic *laiwaʀikā, from Proto-Germanic *laiwazikǭ (compare dialectal West Frisian larts, Dutch leeuwerik, German Lerche), from *laiwaz (borrowed into Finnish leivo, Estonian lõo), of unknown ultimate origin with no definitive cognates outside of Germanic.

* from a northern English dialectal term lake /laik (“to play”) (around 1300, from Old Norse leika (“to play (as opposed to work)”)), with an intrusive -r- as is common in southern British dialects; or
* a shortening of skylark (1809), sailors' slang, "play roughly in the rigging of a ship", because the common European larks were proverbial for high-flying; Dutch has a similar idea in speelvogel (“playbird, a person of markedly playful nature”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A frolic; a jolly time. [Colloq.] Dickens.
  2. verb To sport; to frolic. [Colloq.]
  3. noun Any one numerous species of singing birds of the genus Alauda and allied genera (family Alaudidæ). They mostly belong to Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. In America they are represented by the shore larks, or horned by the shore larks, or horned larks, of the genus Otocoris. The true larks have holaspidean tarsi, very long hind claws, and usually, dull, sandy brown colors.
  4. verb To catch larks; as, to go larking.

Etymology [Perh fr. AS. lac play, sport. Cf. Lake, v. i.]

Etymology [OE. larke, laverock, AS. lawerce; akin to D. leeuwerik, LG. lewerke, OHG. l, G. lerche, Sw. lärka, Dan. lerke, Icel. lævirki.]

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