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

banana

UK /bəˈnɑːnə/ · US /bəˈnænə/ noun, adjective, proper noun

Forms bananas bonana bonano bonanoe

  1. noun An elongated curved tropical fruit of a banana plant, which grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin. “Jimmy had a banana for breakfast.”
  2. noun (Canada, US, UK, Ireland) In particular, the sweet, yellow fruit of the Cavendish banana cultivar, which may be eaten raw, as distinct from e.g. a plantain for cooking.
  3. noun The tropical tree-like plant which bears clusters of bananas, a plant of the genus Musa (but sometimes also including plants from Ensete), which has large, elongated leaves.
  4. noun (uncountable) A yellow color, like that of a banana's skin.
  5. noun (derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of East or Southeast Asian descent, considered to be overly assimilated and subservient to white authority.
  6. noun (Malaysia, Singapore, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Chinese descent who cannot speak Mandarin or any Chinese dialect
  7. noun (slang) The penis.
  8. noun (sports) A banana kick.
  9. adjective Curved like a banana, especially of a ball in flight.
  10. noun (informal, humorous, derogatory, often attributively) One who objects to the building of any structure in their neighbourhood or a certain type of structure anywhere, especially in public policy debate.
  11. proper noun A surname.
  12. proper noun A village on Kiritimati, Kiribati.

Synonyms

Twinkie NIMBY banana tree

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese banana or Spanish banana, derived from a Niger-Congo language spoken in the Guinea region. Specific derivation is unclear. Possible ancestor or cognate languages include Wolof banaana, Eastern Maninkakan banana, and Vai ꕒꘌꕯ (ɓaana) or ꕒꕌꕯ (ɓaana), possibly from Arabic بَنَان (banān, “fingertip, banana”). However, Ay Baati Wolof (Munro & Gaye, 1997) posits that Wolof banaana is itself derived from Portuguese banana.
The racial slur derives from the notion that they are “Yellow (East-Asian) on the outside, but White (Westernized) on the inside”.

Contrived acronym of build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone (or anything), as a play on "bananas" meaning "crazy, mad"

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A perennial herbaceous plant of almost treelike size (Musa sapientum); also, its edible fruit. See Musa.

Etymology [Sp. banana, name of the fruit.]

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “banana” (best matches first).

All 15 Sanskrit matches →