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

mew

/ˈmjuː/ noun, verb, interjection, proper noun

Forms mews mewing mewed mue

  1. noun (archaic, poetic, dialectal) A gull, seagull.
  2. noun (obsolete) A prison, or other place of confinement.
  3. noun (obsolete) A hiding place; a secret store or den.
  4. noun (obsolete) A breeding-cage for birds.
  5. noun (falconry) A cage for hawks, especially while moulting.
  6. noun (falconry, in the plural) A building or set of buildings where moulting birds are kept.
  7. verb (archaic) To shut away, confine, lock up.
  8. verb (of a bird) To moult. “The hawk mewed his feathers.”
  9. verb (of a bird, obsolete) To cause to moult.
  10. verb (of a deer, obsolete) To shed antlers.
  11. noun The crying sound of a cat; a meow, especially of a kitten.
  12. noun The crying sound of a gull or buzzard.
  13. noun (obsolete) An exclamation of disapproval; a boo.
  14. verb (of a cat, especially of a kitten) To meow.
  15. verb (of a gull or buzzard) To make its cry.
  16. interjection A cat's (especially a kitten's) cry.
  17. interjection A gull's or buzzard's cry.
  18. interjection (archaic) An exclamation of disapproval; boo.
  19. verb (intransitive, slang) To flatten one's tongue against the roof of the mouth, with the aim of improving jaw and facial structure.
  20. proper noun A surname. “Darren James Mew”

Synonyms

meow miaou miaow miaul mew gull sea mew Larus canus

Etymology

From Middle English mewe, mowe, meau, from Old English mǣw (“seagull”), from Proto-West Germanic *maiwī, from Proto-Germanic *mai(h)waz (“seagull”). See also West Frisian meau, miuw, Dutch meeuw, German Möwe (whence Polish mewa); akin to Latvian maût (“to roar”), Old Church Slavonic мꙑꙗти (myjati, “to mew”).

From Middle English mewe, mue, mwe, from Anglo-Norman mue, muwe, and Middle French mue (“shedding feathers; cage for moulting birds; prison”), from muer (“to moult”).

From Middle English mewen; onomatopoeic.

Named after British orthodontists John Mew and his son Michael Mew.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A gull, esp. the common British species (Larus canus); called also sea mew, maa, mar, mow, and cobb.
  2. verb To shed or cast; to change; to molt; as, the hawk mewed his feathers.
  3. verb To cast the feathers; to molt; hence, to change; to put on a new appearance.
  4. noun A cage for hawks while mewing; a coop for fattening fowls; hence, any inclosure; a place of confinement or shelter; --in the latter sense usually in the plural.

Etymology [AS. m, akin to D. meeuw, G. möwe, OHG. m, Icel. mar.]

Etymology [OE. muen, F. muer, fr. L. mutare to change, fr. movere to move. See Move, and cf. Mew a cage, Molt.]

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