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

avalanche

UK /ˈævəlɑːnʃ/ · US /ˈævəlæn(t)ʃ/ noun, verb

Forms avalanches avalanching avalanched

  1. noun A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.
  2. noun A fall of earth, rocks, etc., similar to that of an avalanche of snow or ice.
  3. noun (by extension) A sudden, great, or irresistible descent or influx; anything like an avalanche in suddenness and overwhelming quantity.
  4. verb (intransitive) To descend like an avalanche.
  5. verb (transitive) To come down upon; to overwhelm. “The shelf broke and the boxes avalanched the workers.”
  6. verb (transitive) To propel downward like an avalanche.

Synonyms

snowslide snowslip barrage blitz roll down

Etymology

From French avalanche, from Franco-Provençal (Savoy) avalançhe, blend of aval (“downhill”) and standard lavençhe, from Vulgar Latin *labanka (compare Occitan lavanca, Italian valanga), of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of Late Latin lābīna (“landslide”) (compare Franco-Provençal (Dauphiné) lavino, Romansh lavina), from Latin lābēs, from lābor (“to slip, slide”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.
  2. noun A fall of earth, rocks, etc., similar to that of an avalanche of snow or ice.

Etymology [F. avalanche, fr. avaler to descend, to let down, from aval down, downward; ad) + val, L. vallis, valley. See Valley.]

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