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

poleaxe

/ˈpoʊlˌæks/ noun, verb

Forms poleaxes poleaxing poleaxed poleax pole-axe pollaxe pollax polax

  1. noun An ax having both a blade and a hammer face; used to slaughter cattle.
  2. noun (historical) A long-handled battle axe, being a combination of ax, hammer and pike.
  3. verb (transitive) To fell someone with, or as if with, a poleaxe.
  4. verb (transitive, figurative) To astonish; to shock or surprise utterly.
  5. verb (transitive, figurative) To stymie, thwart, cripple, paralyze.

Synonyms

poleax

Etymology

From earlier pollax, from poll (“head”) + axe, with the spelling influenced by pole.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Anciently, a kind of battle-ax with a long handle; later, an ax or hatchet with a short handle, and a head variously patterned; --used by soldiers, and also by sailors in boarding a vessel.

Etymology [OE. pollax; cf. OD. pollexe. See Poll head, and Ax.]

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