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

preoccupy

UK /pɹɪˈɒkjupaɪ/ · US /pɹiˈɑkjupaɪ/ verb

Forms preoccupies preoccupying preoccupied

  1. verb (transitive) To distract; to draw attention elsewhere. “The father tried to preoccupy the child with his keys.”
  2. verb (transitive) To worry or concern (someone) so as to distract them. “It always preoccupies me when he acts like this.”
  3. verb (transitive, obsolete) To occupy or take possession of beforehand.

Synonyms

exercise

Etymology

From pre- + occupy, after Middle French preoccuper, and its source, Latin praeoccupo, praeoccupare. Doublet of preoccupate, now obsolete.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To take possession of before another; as, to preoccupy a country not before held.
  2. verb To prepossess; to engage, occupy, or engross the attention of, beforehand; hence, to prejudice.

Etymology [Cf. F. préoccuper. See Preoccupate, Occupy.]

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