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

ransack

/ˈɹænsæk/ verb, noun

Forms ransacks ransacking ransacked ransackest ransackedst ransacketh

  1. verb To search (a place, through things, etc.) thoroughly, especially when vigorous and leaving behind a state of disarray.
  2. verb To search (someone or a place) thoroughly in order to steal something, especially when vigorous and leaving behind a state of disarray; hence, to rob (someone or a place); to plunder. “to ransack a house for valuables”
  3. verb (chiefly passive voice) To search for and steal (something) as plunder.
  4. verb (figurative, archaic) To examine (someone or something) carefully; to investigate; also, to question (someone) thoroughly; to interrogate.
  5. verb To look for or seek out (someone).
  6. verb To search (someone) for a thing.
  7. verb (figurative) Synonym of penetrate (“to make way into the interior of (something); to pierce”); also, synonym of pervade (“to enter and spread through (something); to permeate”).
  8. verb To search thoroughly, especially when leaving behind a state of disarray.
  9. noun Synonym of ransacking (“an act of ransacking (“searching thoroughly (in order to steal); etc.”) someone or something; an eager search”).

Synonyms

rifle loot pillage sack penetrate ramshack ransackle ranshackle ransacking plunder despoil reave strip foray comb

Etymology

The verb is derived from Middle English ransaken (“to examine, investigate; to rob, plunder, steal; to search, seek; to treat roughly, mistreat”), from Old Norse rannsaka (“to search a house (especially for stolen goods)”), from rann (“house”) (from Proto-Germanic *razną (“dwelling, house”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“to rest; quiet”)) + saka, an ablaut variant of sœkja, sǿkja (“to look for, search, seek”) (from Proto-Germanic *sōkijaną (“to look for, seek”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to follow; to seek out, trace”)).
Verb senses 1.2 (“to search (someone, or a place) thoroughly in order to steal something”), 1.3 (“to search for and steal (something) as plunder”), and 2.2 (“to search for and steal things”) are probably influenced by sack (“to pillage, to plunder”).
The noun is derived from the verb.
* Middle Low German rānsāken, rantsāken
* Old Danish randsage, ransage (modern Danish ransage)
* Old Swedish ransaka (modern Swedish rannsaka)

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To search thoroughly; to search every place or part of; as, to ransack a house.
  2. verb To plunder; to pillage completely.
  3. verb To make a thorough search.
  4. noun The act of ransacking, or state of being ransacked; pillage.

Etymology [OE. ransaken, Icel, rannsaka to explore, examine; rann a house (akin to Goth. razn house, AS. ræsn plank, beam) + the root of sækja to seek, akin to E. seek. See Seek, and cf. Rest repose.]

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