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

sconce

UK /skɒns/ · US /skɑns/ noun, verb

Forms sconces sconcing sconced skonce

  1. noun A fixture for a light, which holds it and provides a screen against wind or against a naked flame or lightbulb.
  2. noun A candlestick (holder for a candle, especially a circular tube, with a brim, into which a candle is inserted), either with a handle for carrying, or with a bracket for attaching to a wall.
  3. noun A head or a skull.
  4. noun A poll tax; a mulct or fine.
  5. noun (Oxford University slang) An act of sconcing (very similar to a fine at Cambridge University, though a sconce is the act of issuing a penalty rather than the penalty itself).
  6. verb (obsolete) To impose a fine, a forfeit, or a mulct.
  7. verb (Oxford University slang) During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to announce some (usually outrageous) deed such that anyone who has done it must drink (similar to I have never; commonly associated with crewdates; very similar to fining at Cambridge University). “I sconce anyone who has ever…”
  8. noun A type of small fort or other fortification, especially as built to defend a pass or ford.
  9. noun (obsolete) A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.
  10. noun (architecture) A squinch.
  11. noun A fragment of a floe of ice.
  12. noun A fixed seat or shelf.
  13. verb (obsolete) To shut within a sconce; to imprison.

Synonyms

sconcing fine

Etymology

From Middle English sconce, sconse (“candlestick or lantern (with screen)”), from Old French esconse (“lantern”), from Latin absconsus (“hidden”), perfect passive participle of abscondō (“hide”). Cognate with abscond.

Unclear. Perhaps a use of sconce (“light fixture”) or sconce (“fortification”), but seemingly older than the latter

Borrowed from Middle Dutch schans, cognate with German Schanze.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A fortification, or work for defense; a fort.
  2. noun A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.
  3. verb To shut up in a sconce; to imprison; to insconce. [Obs.]
  4. verb To mulct; to fine. [Obs.] Milton.

Etymology [D. schans, OD. schantse, perhaps from OF. esconse a hiding place, akin to esconser to hide, L. absconsus, p. p. of abscondere. See Abscond, and cf. Ensconce, Sconce a candlestick.]

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