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

rife

/ɹaɪf/ adjective, adverb

Forms rifer rifest

  1. adjective Widespread, common, prevalent, current (mainly of unpleasant or harmful things). “Smallpox was rife after the siege had been lifted.”
  2. adjective Abounding; present in large numbers, plentiful. “Red deer are rife in these woodlands.”
  3. adjective Full of (mostly unpleasant or harmful things). “Many post-colonial governments were rife with lawlessness and corruption.”
  4. adjective (obsolete) Having power; active; nimble.
  5. adverb Plentifully, abundantly. “The snowdrops grow rife on the slopes of Mount Pembroke.”

Synonyms

pandemic filled fraught ubiquitous prevailing prevalent predominant dominant overabundant plethoric

Etymology

From Middle English rife, from Old English rīfe, rȳfe (“rife, abundant, frequent”), from Proto-West Germanic *rīb, from Proto-Germanic *rībaz (“generous”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to tear (off), rip”). Cognate with West Frisian rju (“rife, much”), Dutch rijf (“abundant, copious”), Low German rive (“abundant, munificent”), Icelandic rífur (“rife, munificent”), Faroese ríviligur (“plentiful, abundant”), Faroese rívan (“abundantly”), Icelandic reifa (“to bestow”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Prevailing; prevalent; abounding.
  2. adjective Having power; active; nimble. [Obs.]

Etymology [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]

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