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

ascendant

UK /əˈsɛnd(ə)nt/ · US /əˈsɛndənt/ adjective, noun

Forms ascendants ascendent

  1. adjective Moving upward; ascending, rising.
  2. adjective (figurative) Controlling, dominant, surpassing.
  3. adjective (astrology) In an eastern direction rising just above the horizon.
  4. adjective (astronomy) Rising towards the zenith.
  5. adjective (botany, physiology) Of a part of an organism: synonym of ascending (“leading or sloping upwards”).
  6. adjective (genealogy, archaic or obsolete) Synonym of ascending (“of or pertaining to one's ancestors”).
  7. noun (astrology, also figurative) The degree of the zodiac or point of the ecliptic which rises in an eastern direction above the horizon at a particular moment (especially the moment of a person's birth), which is supposed to have a commanding influence on a person's fortune and life; a horoscope.
  8. noun Chiefly in in the ascendant: an act of ascending or rising.
  9. noun (figurative) Synonym of ascendancy (“commanding influence; dominant control; superiority, supremacy”). “One man has the ascendant over another.”
  10. noun (genealogy) An ancestor.
  11. noun A person who ascends or goes up; specifically (usually followed by to), a person who ascends to a throne or assumes some other position of power. “Given his father’s ghastly demise, one would not expect such glee from the ascendant to his throne.”
  12. noun Something which is higher than the things around it; a peak, a summit; specifically (typography), synonym of ascender (“the portion of a lowercase letter that extends above the midline”).
  13. noun Something which leads or slopes upwards, such as a flight of stairs or an upward incline.
  14. noun (rare) A person who supports a policy of ecclesiastical or national supremacy.

Synonyms

superior ascending significator of life ascendancy ascendent ancestor antecedent root ascensive dominating

Antonyms

descendant

Etymology

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English ascendent (“ascending, rising; increasing in quantity; (astronomy) rising above the horizon”) [and other forms], borrowed from Old French ascendant, from Latin ascendentem, the accusative singular of ascendēns (“ascending, rising”), the present participle of ascendō, adscendō (“to climb up, go up, move upwards; to rise; to spring up”), from ad- (prefix meaning ‘(up) to’) + scandō (“to ascend, climb, mount; to clamber”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to climb, scale; to dart; to jump; to scan (poetry)”)). The English word is analysable as ascend (verb) + -ant (suffix forming adjectives from verbs with the sense of ‘doing [the verbal actions]’).
The noun is probably derived from the adjective, though it is attested earlier than the latter.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Ascent; height; elevation. [R.]
  2. noun The horoscope, or that degree of the ecliptic which rises above the horizon at the moment of one's birth; supposed to have a commanding influence on a person's life and fortune.
  3. adjective Rising toward the zenith; above the horizon.
  4. adjective Rising; ascending. Ruskin.

Etymology [F. ascendant, L. ascendens; p. pr. of ascendere.]

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