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

mayor

UK /ˈmɛə̯/ · US /ˈmeɪ̯.ɚ/ noun, proper noun

Forms mayors maiere maieur mar mayere meer mehir meir meire mer mere meyhir meyr maier mayer mayr

  1. noun The chief executive of the municipal government of a city, borough, etc., formerly (historical) usually appointed as a caretaker by European royal courts but now usually appointed or elected locally.
  2. noun (historical) Synonym of mair, various former officials in the Kingdom of Scotland.
  3. noun (Ireland, rare, obsolete) A member of a city council.
  4. noun (historical, obsolete) A high justice, an important judge.
  5. noun (chiefly US) A largely ceremonial position in some municipal governments that presides over the city council while a contracted city manager holds actual executive power.
  6. noun (figurative, humorous) A local VIP, a muckamuck or big shot reckoned to lead some local group.
  7. proper noun A surname from Anglo-Norman.

Synonyms

mair various former officials in the Kingdom of Scotland mayoress burgomaster boroughmaster boroughreeve portreeve provost Lord Provost praetor city manager

Etymology

From Middle English maire, from Old French maire (“head of a city or town government”), a substantivation of Old French maire (“greater”), from Latin maior (“bigger, greater, superior”), comparative of magnus (“big, great”). Doublet of major. Cognate with Old High German meior (“estate manager, steward, bailiff”) (modern German Meier), Middle Dutch meier (“administrator, steward, bailiff”) (modern Dutch meier). Displaced Old English burgealdor (“a ruler of a city, mayor, citizen”), burhġerēfa (“boroughreeve”), and portġerēfa (“portreeve”).

* As an English surname, variant of Mayer.
* As a Spanish surname, from the adjective mayor (“older, elder”).
* Also as a Spanish surname, from the archaic noun major (“mayor, chief”), itself related to the above.
* As a Jewish surname, variant of Meyer.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The chief magistrate of a city or borough; the chief officer of a municipal corporation. In some American cities there is a city court of which the major is chief judge.

Etymology [OE. maire, F. maire, fr. L. major greater, higher, nobler, compar. of magnus great; cf. Sp. mayor. See Major, and cf. Merino.]

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