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

monotone

UK /ˈmɒn.ə.təʊn/ · US /ˈmɑ.nə.toʊn/ adjective, noun, verb

Forms monotones monotoning monotoned

  1. adjective (of speech or a sound) Having a single unvaried pitch.
  2. adjective (mathematics) Of a function: that is always nonincreasing or nondecreasing on an interval. “The function f(x)#58;#61;x³ is monotone on #92;R, while g(x)#58;#61;x² is not.”
  3. adjective (printing) Synonym of monochrome.
  4. noun A single unvaried tone of speech or a sound. “When Tima felt like her parents were treating her like a servant, she would speak in monotone and act as though she were a robot.”
  5. noun A piece of writing in one strain throughout.
  6. verb (ambitransitive) To speak in a monotone.

Synonyms

monotonic monochrome drone droning flat monotonous

Etymology

From the post-Classical Latin monotonus (“unvarying in tone”) or its etymon the Ancient Greek μονότονος (monótonos, “steady”, “unwavering”); compare cognate adjectives, namely the French monotone, the German monoton, the Italian monotono, and the Spanish monótono, as well as the slightly earlier English noun monotony and adjective monotonical.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A single unvaried tone or sound.
  2. noun The utterance of successive syllables, words, or sentences, on one unvaried key or line of pitch.

Etymology [See Monotonous, Monotony.]

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