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

pitchfork

/ˈpɪt͡ʃˌfɔɹk/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms pitchforks pitchforking pitchforked

  1. noun An agricultural hand tool comprising a fork with sparse, light tines, attached to a long handle, used for pitching hay (especially loose hay) high up onto a stack (as on a wagon or haystack, or into a haymow).
  2. noun A similar fork with slightly more and heavier tines, used for mucking stalls and pitching soiled bedding into a wagon or manure spreader.
  3. noun (casual, loosely) Any fork used for farm labor, even a digging fork (but such usage is often considered ignorant by experienced farmers).
  4. noun (in the plural, figurative, metonymic) An angry mob; the power or effects of such a mob. “The city council was facing the pitchforks once the public had realized what the new ordinance entailed.”
  5. noun (rare) A tuning fork.
  6. verb (transitive) To toss or carry with a pitchfork. “The hay was soon pitchforked onto the wagon.”
  7. verb (transitive, figurative) To throw suddenly.
  8. proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

dungfork manure fork graip hurl pitch fork

Etymology

From Middle English pichfork, pycchefork, pychforke, pikeforke, pikkforke, pic-forcke, equivalent to pitch (verb) + fork (i.e. "a fork used for pitching or throwing material, like hay"). The figurative sense (noun sense 4) is an allusion to a crowd of farmers wielding their farm tools as weapons.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A fork, or farming utensil, used in pitching hay, sheaves of grain, or the like.
  2. verb To pitch or throw with, or as with, a pitchfork.

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