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

automaton

/ɔːˈtɒmətən/ noun

Forms automatons automata

  1. noun A machine or robot designed to follow a precise sequence of instructions.
  2. noun A person who acts like a machine or robot, often defined as having a monotonous lifestyle and lacking in emotion. “Due to her strict adherence to her daily schedule, Jessica was becoming more and more convinced that she was an automaton.”
  3. noun A formal system, such as a finite-state machine or cellular automaton.
  4. noun A toy in the form of a mechanical figure.
  5. noun (dated) The self-acting power of the muscular and nervous systems, by which movement is effected without intelligent determination.

Synonyms

zombi zombie robot golem

Etymology

From Ancient Greek αὐτόματον (autómaton), neuter of αὐτόματος (autómatos, “self moving, self willed”). Doublet of automat.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Any thing or being regarded as having the power of spontaneous motion or action. Huxley.
  2. noun A self-moving machine, or one which has its motive power within itself; --applied chiefly to machines which appear to imitate spontaneously the motions of living beings, such as men, birds, etc.

Etymology [L. fr. Gr. ma, man, to strive, think, cf. Mean, v. i.]

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