Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

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)

-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.

lead off

noun, verb

Forms lead offs leads off leading off led off

noun (baseball) The first batter in the batting order. “Jones has been the team's lead off hitter for three years.”
noun (baseball) The first batter of an inning. “The lead off hitter for the sixth inning is Jones.”
noun (baseball) The short distance that a player stands away from their current base.
noun (broadcasting) The first item in a broadcast schedule.
verb Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lead, off. “The kitchen and the lounge lead off from the hallway.”
verb (baseball) To be the first batter of an inning. “Jones led off the inning with a home run.”
verb (by extension) To be the first of any set, especially the first person in a group to speak; to launch or begin something by speaking.

Synonyms

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “lead off”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details