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

magpie

/ˈmæɡˌpaɪ/ noun, verb

Forms magpies magpieing magpied

  1. noun One of several kinds of bird in the family Corvidae, especially Pica pica.
  2. noun A superficially similar Australian bird, Gymnorhina tibicen, in the family Artamidae.
  3. noun (figurative) Someone who displays a magpie-like quality such as hoarding or stealing objects.
  4. noun (slang) A fan or member of Newcastle United F.C.
  5. noun (UK, firearms) In the sport of fullbore target rifle, the third circle on a target, between the inner and outer.
  6. noun (UK, slang, obsolete) A halfpenny.
  7. noun (attributively) A pattern resembling the pied plumage of a magpie.
  8. verb (transitive) To mark with patches of black and white or light and dark.
  9. verb (ambitransitive) To steal or hoard (items) as magpies are believed to do.
  10. verb (intransitive) To talk idly; to talk about other people's private business.
  11. noun (soccer) Someone connected with Newcastle United Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
  12. noun (soccer) Someone connected with Notts County Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
  13. noun (Australian rules football) Someone connected with Collingwood Football Club, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
  14. noun (rugby league) Someone connected with the Western Suburbs Magpies, as a fan, player, coach, etc.
  15. noun A town in the City of Ballarat, central western Victoria, Australia.

Synonyms

haggister maggie Eurasian magpie European magpie common magpie pica pie piet mottle chatter gossip scavenger pack rat chatterer babbler prater chatterbox spouter

Etymology

From Mag, a nickname for Margaret that was used to denote a chatterer, + archaic pie (“magpie”), from Middle English pie, pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker, magpie”). Displaced native Old English agu (“magpie”) and Middle English aguster (“magpie”), whence English haggister.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Any one of numerous species of the genus Pica and related genera, allied to the jays, but having a long graduated tail.

Etymology [OE. & Prov. E. magot pie, maggoty pie, fr. Mag, Maggot, equiv. to Margaret, and fr. F. Marquerite, and common name of the magpie. Marguerite is fr. L. margarita pearl, Gr. Pie magpie, and cf. the analogous names Tomtit, and Jackdaw.]

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