Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iː	see	ɪ	sit	e / ɛ	bed	æ	cat
ɑː	father	ɒ	hot (UK)	ɔː	law	ʊ	put
uː	too	ʌ	cup	ɜː	bird	ə	about
eɪ	day	aɪ	my	ɔɪ	boy	aʊ	now
əʊ / oʊ	go (UK / US)	ɪə	near	eə	hair	ʊə	tour

Consonants that look unusual

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

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

sacrum

/ˈsækɹəm/ noun

Forms sacra sacrums

noun (anatomy) A large triangular bone at the base of the spine, located between the two ilia (wings of the pelvis) and formed from vertebrae that fuse in adulthood.

Synonyms

holy bone

Etymology

From Latin os sacrum (“holy bone”), a calque of Ancient Greek ἱερὸν ὀστέον (hieròn ostéon). Apparently so called either because the sacrum was the part of the animal offered in sacrifice or because of a putative belief that it is where a person's soul resides. A third explanation is that the term is a translation of Ancient Greek ἱερόν (hierón), which has two meanings: “holy, sacred”, and “big” — big being a more appropriate description of the sacrum — but compare.

Webster’s 1913

noun That part of the vertebral column which is directly connected with, or forms a part of, the pelvis.

Etymology [NL., fr. L. sacer sacred, os sacrum the lowest bone of the spine.]

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