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

mountebank

/ˈmaʊntəˌbæŋk/ noun, verb

Forms mountebanks mountebanking mountebanked

  1. noun One who sells dubious medicines.
  2. noun One who sells by deception; a con artist.
  3. noun Any boastful, false pretender.
  4. noun (obsolete) An acrobat.
  5. verb (intransitive) To act as a mountebank.
  6. verb (transitive) To cheat by boasting and false pretenses.

Synonyms

charlatan conman fake quack bristler bunco artist bunco-steerer chiseler con artist confidence artist confidence trickster flimflammer grifter lugger magsman saltimbanco sharpster sharker shark-gull slicker

Etymology

From archaic Italian montambanco (“quack who mounts a bench to hawk his wares”), contracted from monta-in-banco (“mount on bench”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun One who mounts a bench or stage in the market or other public place, boasts of his skill in curing diseases, and vends medicines which he pretends are infalliable remedies; a quack doctor.
  2. noun Any boastful or false pretender; a charlatan; a quack.
  3. verb To cheat by boasting and false pretenses; to gull. [R.] Shak.
  4. verb To play the mountebank.

Etymology [It. montimbanco, montambanco; montare to mount + in in, upon + banco bench. See Mount, and 4th Bank.]

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