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

shorten

UK /ˈʃɔːtn̩/ · US /ˈʃɔɹtn̩/ verb, proper noun

Forms shortens shortening shortened

  1. verb (transitive) To make shorter; to abbreviate.
  2. verb (intransitive) To become shorter.
  3. verb (transitive) To make deficient (as to); to deprive (of).
  4. verb (transitive) To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, etc.
  5. verb (transitive) To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen. “to shorten an allowance of food”
  6. verb (baking, of pastries, transitive) To make crumbly.
  7. verb (nautical, transitive) To take in the slack of (a rope).
  8. verb (nautical, transitive) To reduce (sail) by taking it in.
  9. proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

abbreviate abridge chop down chop off cut short compress condense curt curtail lop off make shorter pare prune reduce in length trim truncate saw off foreshorten cut contract reduce bowdlerize bowdlerise expurgate castrate

Antonyms

extend lengthen

Etymology

From Middle English shortnen, schortenen, equivalent to short + -en (verbal suffix). In some senses, a continuation (in altered form) of Middle English schorten (“to make short, shorten”), from Old English sċortian (“to become short”), from Proto-Germanic *skurtōną (“to shorten”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To make short or shorter in measure, extent, or time; as, to shorten distance; to shorten a road; to shorten days of calamity.
  2. verb To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen; to abridge; to curtail; to contract; as, to shorten work, an allowance of food, etc. Here, where the subject is so fruitful, I am shortened by my chain.
  3. verb To become short or shorter; as, the day shortens in northern latitudes from June to December; a metallic rod shortens by cold.

Etymology [See Short, a.]

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

Sanskrit

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