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

balloon

UK /bəˈluːn/ · US /bəˈlun/ noun, verb

Forms balloons ballooning ballooned

  1. noun An inflatable buoyant object, often (but not necessarily) round and flexible.
  2. noun Such an object as a child’s toy or party decoration.
  3. noun Such an object designed to transport people or equipment through the air.
  4. noun (medicine) A sac inserted into part of the body for therapeutic reasons; such as angioplasty.
  5. noun A speech bubble.
  6. noun A wide rounded glass with a stem and foot, used for wine, brandy, etc.
  7. noun (architecture) A ball or globe on the top of a pillar, church, etc. “the balloon of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London”
  8. noun (chemistry) A round vessel, usually with a short neck, to hold or receive whatever is distilled; a glass vessel of a spherical form.
  9. verb (intransitive) To increase or expand rapidly. “His stomach ballooned from eating such a large meal.”
  10. verb (intransitive) To go up or voyage in a balloon.
  11. verb (transitive) To take up in, or as if in, a balloon.
  12. verb (transitive) To inflate like a balloon.
  13. verb (transitive, sports) To strike (a ball) so that it flies high in the air.
  14. verb (aviation) Of an aircraft: to plunge alternately up and down.

Synonyms

toy balloon speech bubble fumetto ballon assets babylons balloons baps badonkers bangers bazongas bazookas bazoombas bazooms bewbs bobas booba boobage boobs boobers inflate billow

Etymology

First use appears c. 1591, "a game played with a large, inflated leather ball" (possibly via Middle French ballon) from Italian pallone (“large ball”) from palla (“ball”), from Lombardic *palla. The Northern Italian form, balla (“ball-shaped bundle”), today a doublet, likely derived from Old French balle, from Frankish *balla (“ball”), and may have influenced the spelling of this word. Both Germanic words are from Proto-Germanic *ballô (“ball”), *balluz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰoln- (“bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, swell, inflate”). Akin to Old High German ballo, bal (“ball”), (German Ballen (“bale”); Ball "ball"). Doublet of ballon. More at ball.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A bag made of silk or other light material, and filled with hydrogen gas or heated air, so as to rise and float in the atmosphere; especially, one with a car attached for aërial navigation.
  2. noun A ball or globe on the top of a pillar, church, etc., as at St.
  3. verb To take up in, or as if in, a balloon.
  4. verb To go up or voyage in a balloon.

Etymology [F. ballon, aug. of balle ball: cf. It. ballone. See 1st Ball, n., and cf. Pallone.]

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