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

barren

/ˈbæɹən/ adjective, noun

Forms barrener barrenest barrens

  1. adjective (of people and animals, not comparable) Not bearing children, childless; hence also unable to bear children, sterile. “I silently wept as my daughter's husband rejected her. What would she do now that she was no longer a maiden but also barren?”
  2. adjective (of plants, not comparable) Not bearing seed or fruit.
  3. adjective (of places) Of poor fertility, infertile; not producing vegetation; desert, waste.
  4. adjective (with of) Devoid, lacking.
  5. adjective Devoid of interest or attraction, poor, bleak.
  6. adjective Unproductive, fruitless, unprofitable; empty, hollow, vain.
  7. adjective Mentally dull or unproductive; stupid or intellectually fallow.
  8. noun An area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place.
  9. noun (usually in the plural) In particular, a usually elevated and flat expanse of land that only supports the growth of small trees and shrubs, and sometimes mosses or heathers, berries, and other marshy or moory vegetation, but little agriculture and few people. “The pine barrens are a site lonely enough to suit any hermit.”

Synonyms

destitute bereft idle sterile fruitless waste wasteland bare bleak desolate stark devoid free innocent

Antonyms

fertile fruitful

Etymology

From Middle English bareyne, from Anglo-Norman baraigne, baraing (“sterile; barren”), of obscure origin; probably from a Germanic language, perhaps Frankish *baʀ (“bare; barren”), from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“bare”). If so, a cognate of English bare.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- She was barren of children. Bp. Hall.
  2. adjective Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; "Barren mountain tracts." Macaulay.
  3. noun A tract of barren land.
  4. noun pl.

Etymology [OE. barein, OF. brehaing, brehaigne, baraigne, F. bréhaigne; of uncertain origin; cf. Arm. brékha, markha, sterile; LL. brana a sterile mare, principally in Aquitanian and Spanish documents; Bisc. barau, baru, fasting.]

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

Sanskrit

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

All 46 Sanskrit matches →