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

sedge

/sɛd͡ʒ/ noun

Forms sedges

  1. noun Any plant of the family Cyperaceae.
  2. noun Any plant of the genus Carex, the true sedges; perennial herbs with triangular jointless stems, a spiked inflorescence, and long grass-like leaves which are usually rough on the margins and midrib.
  3. noun Any of various other plants resembling true sedges, such as Gentiana rubricaulis and Andropogon virginicus.
  4. noun (fishing) A dry fly used in fly fishing, designed to resemble a sedge or caddis fly.
  5. noun A flock of herons, cranes, or bitterns.

Etymology

From Middle English segge, from Old English seċġ, from Proto-West Germanic *sagi, from Proto-Germanic *sagjaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sak- (“marsh plant”).
Cognate with Dutch zegge and German Segge, dialectal German Saher (“reeds”).

By contraction from sedge fly.

Variant spellings.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Any plant of the genus Carex, perennial, endogenous herbs, often growing in dense tufts in marshy places. They have triangular jointless stems, a spiked inflorescence, and long grasslike leaves which are usually rough on the margins and midrib. There are several hundred species.
  2. noun A flock of herons. Sedge ken (Zoöl.), the clapper rail. See under 5th Rail.

Etymology [OE. segge, AS. secg; akin to LG. segge; -- probably named from its bladelike appearance, and akin to L. secare to cut, E. saw a cutting instrument; cf. Ir. seisg, W. hesg. Cf. Hassock, Saw the instrument.]

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