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

monopoly

UK /məˈnɒpəli/ · US /məˈnɑpəli/ noun, proper noun

Forms monopolies

  1. noun A situation, by legal privilege or other agreement, in which solely one party (company, cartel etc.) exclusively provides a particular product or service, dominating that market and generally exerting powerful control over it.
  2. noun An exclusive control over the trade or production of a commodity or service through exclusive possession. “A land monopoly renders its holder(s) nearly almighty in an agricultural society.”
  3. noun The privilege granting the exclusive right to exert such control. “Granting monopolies in concession constitutes a market-conform alternative to taxation for the state, while the crown sometimes bestowed a monopoly as an outrageous gift.”
  4. noun (metonymic) The market thus controlled.
  5. noun (metonymic) The holder (person, company or other) of such market domination in one of the above manners.
  6. proper noun (board games) A board game in which players use play money to buy and trade properties, with the objective of forcing opponents into bankruptcy. “I was playing Monopoly with my friends at 12:00am last night.”

Synonyms

monopolist

Antonyms

monopsony polypoly

Etymology

From Latin monopōlium, from Ancient Greek μονοπώλιον (monopṓlion, “a right of exclusive sale”), from μόνος (mónos, “sole”) + πωλέω (pōléō, “to barter, sell”). By surface analysis, mono- + -poly.

See monopoly.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The exclusive power, or privilege of selling a commodity; the exclusive power, right, or privilege of dealing in some article, or of trading in some market; sole command of the traffic in anything, however obtained; as, the proprietor of a patented article is given a monopoly of its sale for a limited time; chartered trading companies have sometimes had a monopoly of trade with remote regions; a combination of traders may get a monopoly of a particular product.
  2. noun Exclusive possession; as, a monopoly of land.

Etymology [L. monopolium, Gr. 1. The exclusive power, or privilege of selling a commodity; the exclusive power, right, or privilege of dealing in some article, or of trading in some market; sole command of the traffic in anything, however obtained; as, the proprietor of a patented article is given a monopoly of its sale for a limited time; chartered trading companies have sometimes had a monopoly of trade with remote regions; a combination of traders may get a monopoly of a particular product. Raleigh held a monopoly of cards, Essex a monopoly of sweet wines. Macaulay. 2. Exclusive possession; as, a monopoly of land. If I had a monopoly out, they would have part on 't. Shak. 3. The commodity or other material thing to which the monopoly relates; as, tobacco is a monopoly in France. [Colloq.]

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