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

sheikh

/ʃeɪk/ noun, proper noun

Forms sheikhs sheik shaykh

  1. noun The leader of an Arab village, family or small tribe.
  2. noun An Islamic religious cleric; the master of a Sufi order.
  3. noun (some Arab Gulf countries) An official title for members of the royal family as well as some prominent families.
  4. noun (slang, archaic) A romantic lover.
  5. noun (slang) An Arab, especially one dressed in traditional clothing.
  6. noun A member of one of the three hereditary, traditionally endogamous Yazidi castes, taking certain spiritual and leadership roles.
  7. noun An honorific for specialists in spirituality, for example in Sufism.
  8. noun The title of a sheikh.
  9. proper noun A surname from Arabic

Synonyms

sheik tribal sheik tribal sheikh Arab chief

Etymology

From Arabic شَيْخ (šayḵ, “elder”). Sense 4 (“a romantic lover”) is from the 1921 film The Sheik.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “sheikh”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details