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

obscenity

noun

Forms obscenities

  1. noun (countable) Something that is obscene. “Martha wouldn't go into the art museum because, as she put it, "They have obscenities just sitting out, on display!"”
  2. noun (countable) An act of obscene behaviour. “Bestiality was outlawed as an obscenity in the strongly conservative community.”
  3. noun (countable) Specifically, an offensive word; a profanity; a dirty word. “Eliza couldn't stand her daughter's music; as she saw it, it was just shouted obscenities and a heavy drum beat.”
  4. noun (uncountable) Lewdness, indecency, or offensive behaviour or material. “The coalition of religious conservatives was campaigning against, in their view, rampant obscenity in the entertainment industry.”
  5. noun (uncountable) The fact of being obscene.

Synonyms

lewdness bawdiness salaciousness salacity smut vulgarism filth dirty word

Etymology

From obscene + -ity, from Latin obscenitas.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun That quality in words or things which presents what is offensive to chasity or purity of mind; obscene or impure lanquage or acts; moral impurity; lewdness; obsceneness; as, the obscenity of a speech, or a picture.

Etymology [L. obscentias: cf.F. obscénité.]

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