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

limbo

UK /ˈlɪmbəʊ/ · US /ˈlɪmboʊ/ noun, verb

Forms limbos limboes limboing limboed

  1. noun (Roman Catholicism, uncountable) A speculative place or state, thought possibly to be on the edge of the bottomless pit of Hell, where the souls of innocent deceased people might exist temporarily until they can enter heaven, specifically those of the saints who died before the advent of Jesus Christ (who occupy the limbo patrum or limbo of the patriarchs or fathers) and those of unbaptized infants (who occupy the limbo infantum or limbo of the infants); (countable) the possible place where each category of souls might exist, regarded separately.
  2. noun (countable, uncountable) Chiefly preceded by in: any in-between place, or condition or state, of neglect or oblivion which results in deadlock, delay, or some other unresolved status. “My passport application has been stuck in bureaucratic limbo for two weeks.”
  3. noun (slang, archaic, uncountable) Jail, prison; (countable) a jail cell or lockup.
  4. noun (uncountable, obsolete) Synonym of Hades or Hell.
  5. noun (uncountable, obsolete) Synonym of pawn (“the state of something being held as security for a loan, or as a pledge”).
  6. noun (countable, military, nautical, weaponry) A type of antisubmarine mortar installed on naval vessels.
  7. verb (transitive, rare) To place (someone or something) in an in-between place, or condition or state, of neglect or oblivion which results in deadlock, delay, or some other unresolved status.
  8. noun (dance, also attributively) A competitive dance originating from Trinidad and Tobago in which dancers take turns to cross under a horizontal bar while bending backwards. The bar is lowered with each round, and the competition is won by the dancer who passes under the bar in the lowest position without dislodging it or falling down.
  9. verb (dance) To dance the limbo (etymology 2, noun etymology 2, noun sense 1).
  10. verb (by extension, also figuratively) Often followed by under: to pass under something, especially while bending backwards.

Synonyms

Hades or Hell pawn oblivion

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English limbo, lymbo (“place where innocent souls exist temporarily until they can enter heaven”), from Latin limbō, the ablative singular of limbus (“border, edge; hem; fringe, tassel”) (notably in expressions like in limbō (“in limbo”) and e limbō (“out of limbo”)); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *lemb- (“to hang limply or loosely”), from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang down loosely (?)”). Doublet of limp.
The verb is derived from the noun.

Origin uncertain; possibly an alteration of limber (“bendable, flexible, pliant”) with the ending of the word respelled to represent a Caribbean English pronunciation.
It is unclear whether the verb is derived from the noun, or the noun is derived from the verb; the noun is attested slightly earlier.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An extramundane region where certain classes of souls were supposed to await the judgment.
  2. noun Hence: Any real or imaginary place of restraint or confinement; a prison; as, to put a man in limbo.

Etymology [L. limbus border, edge in limbo on the border. Cf. Limb border.]

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