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

reef

/ɹiːf/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun

Forms reefs reefing reefed reefer reefest riff reif rief

  1. noun A chain or range of rocks, sand, or coral lying at or near the surface of the water.
  2. noun (Australia, South Africa) A large vein of auriferous quartz; hence, any body of rock yielding valuable ore.
  3. noun (nautical) A portion of a sail rolled and tied down to lessen the area exposed in a high wind.
  4. noun A reef knot.
  5. verb (nautical) To take in part of a sail in order to adapt the size of the sail to the force of the wind.
  6. verb (Australia) To pull or yank strongly, especially in relation to horse riding.
  7. verb (nautical, of paddles) To move the floats of a paddle wheel toward its center so that they will not dip so deeply. “Reef the paddles.”
  8. verb (slang) To manipulate the lining of a person's pocket in order to steal the contents unnoticed.
  9. adjective Scabby; scurvy.
  10. noun (Now chiefly dialectal) The itch; any eruptive skin disorder.
  11. noun (Now chiefly dialectal) Dandruff.
  12. proper noun A surname from German.

Synonyms

Witwatersrand Rand

Etymology

From earlier riff, from Middle English rif, from Old Norse rif (“rib, reef”), from Proto-Germanic *ribją (“rib, reef”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rebʰ- (“arch, ceiling, cover”). Dutch rif (“reef”), Low German riff, reff (“reef”), German Riff (“reef, ledge”) are also borrowed from Old Norse. Doublet of rib.

From Middle English reef, from Old Norse rif, Middle Dutch rif, rēve, and/or Middle Low German ref. Possibly a figurative use of the word for “rib” in etymology 1 above, in which case all forms must, again, be borrowings from Old Norse. Alternatively it may be a different word related to Old English rift (“curtain, veil”), ārāfian (“to uncoil, wind off”).

From Middle English ref, hreof, from Old English hrēof (“rough, scabby, leprous", also "a leper”), from Proto-Germanic *hreubaz (“rough, scabby, scrubby”), from Proto-Indo-European *kreup- (“scab, crust”), related to Old English hrēofla (“leprosy, leper”). Cognate with Scots reif (“a skin disease leaving crusts on the skin, the scab”), Old High German riob (“leprous, scabby, mangy”), Icelandic hrjúfur (“scabby, rough”). Compare riffe, dandruff.

Borrowed from North German Reef, possibly related to Reep (“rope”), or otherwise from obsolete rif (“body”) (from Proto-West Germanic *hrif).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A chain or range of rocks lying at or near the surface of the water. See Coral reefs, under Coral.
  2. noun A large vein of auriferous quartz; --so called in Australia.
  3. noun That part of a sail which is taken in or let out by means of the reef points, in order to adapt the size of the sail to the force of the wind.
  4. verb To reduce the extent of (as a sail) by roiling or folding a certain portion of it and making it fast to the yard or spar. Totten.

Etymology [Akin to D. rif, G. riff, Icel. rif, Dan. rev; cf. Icel. rifa rift, rent, fissure, rifa to rive, bear. Cf. Rift, Rive.]

Etymology [Akin to D. reef, G. reff, Sw. ref; cf. Icel. rif reef, rifa to basten together. Cf. Reeve, v. t., River.]

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