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

meringue

/məˈɹeɪ̯ŋ/ noun, verb

Forms meringues meringuing meringued

  1. noun A mixture consisting of beaten egg whites and either sugar or other flavorings; it is often baked to brown the surface and may be used as a topping or in other ways, most often as a dessert. “The key to a good baked Alaska is the meringue topping.”
  2. noun A shell made of this mixture which serves as the receptacle for fruit, ice cream or sherbet. “Shirley likes to have strawberry with her meringue.”
  3. verb (cooking, transitive) To prepare as a meringue dish.
  4. noun (music) A genre of Haitian folk music.

Etymology

Borrowed from French meringue. Historically, it was believed that meringue was invented in and named for the Swiss village of Meiringen, but the term is now thought to derive instead from Middle Dutch meringue (“light evening meal”), of unclear origin:
* perhaps from Latin merenda (“light evening meal”), or
* perhaps from Middle Dutch *meren (“to dip or soak bread”), from Old Dutch *meren, itself of unclear origin:
** perhaps from Proto-Germanic *marjaną (“to grind, pound”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub, pack”).
** perhaps from Proto-Germanic *marhin (“soup of bread and wine or water”), from Proto-Indo-European *mark-, *merk- (“wet”).
Compare Middle Low German meringe (from mern (“to dip bread in wine”)), Middle High German merunge (from mëren (“to soak bread in wine or water for dinner”)), Old English merian (“to purify, cleanse, test”). Doublet of merengue.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A delicate pastry made of powdered sugar and the whites of eggs whipped up, --with jam or cream added.

Etymology [F.]

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