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

sergeant

UK /ˈsɑː.d͡ʒənt/ · US /ˈsɑɹ.d͡ʒənt/ noun, proper noun

Forms sergeants serjant sergeaunt serjeant

  1. noun (military) A UK army rank with NATO code OR-6, senior to corporal and junior to warrant officer ranks.
  2. noun The highest rank of noncommissioned officer in some non-naval military forces and police.
  3. noun (law, historical) A lawyer of the highest rank, equivalent to the doctor of civil law.
  4. noun (UK, historical) A title sometimes given to the servants of the sovereign. “sergeant surgeon, i.e. a servant, or attendant, surgeon”
  5. noun A bailiff.
  6. noun A servant in monastic offices.
  7. noun A fish, the píntano (Abudefduf saxatilis), a species of damselfish.
  8. noun Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Athyma; distinct from the false sergeants.
  9. noun The title of a sergeant, added before their name.
  10. proper noun A surname originating as an occupation for a servant.
  11. proper noun A township in McKean County, Pennsylvania, United States.

Synonyms

sarge sarnt police sergeant serjeant-at-law serjeant sergeant-at-law

Etymology

From Middle English sergeant, sergeaunt, serjent, serjaunt, serjawnt, sergant, from Old French sergeant, sergent, serjant, sergient, sergant (“sergeant, servant”), from Medieval Latin servientem, accusative of serviēns (“a servant, vassal, soldier, apparitor”), from Latin serviēns (“serving”), present participle of serviō (“serve, be a slave to”). Doublet of servant and servient.
The shift from /vj/ > /dʒ/ was a regular development in Old French. Compare cavea > cage, salvia > sage.
The fish is so called because of its stripes, supposed to resemble a sergeant's insignia of rank.
The pronunciation with /ɑɹ/ is due to a widespread development of Middle English er + consonant (see barn, start etc.). In sergeant, the spelling was standardised in one way, the pronunciation in another (compare clerk, derby in Commonwealth English, further parson vs. person, and varsity vs. university).

From sergeant.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Formerly, in England, an officer nearly answering to the more modern bailiff of the hundred; also, an officer whose duty was to attend on the king, and on the lord high steward in court, to arrest traitors and other offenders. He is now called sergeant-at-arms, and two of these officers, by allowance of the sovereign, attend on the houses of Parliament (one for each house) to execute their commands, and another attends the Court Chancery.
  2. noun In a company, battery, or troop, a noncommissioned officer next in rank above a corporal, whose duty is to instruct recruits in discipline, to form the ranks, etc.

Etymology [F. sergent, fr. L. serviens, -entis, p. pr. of servire to serve. See Serve, and cf. Servant.]

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