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

sledge

/slɛd͡ʒ/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms sledges sledging sledged

  1. noun (archaic or by ellipsis) A sledgehammer.
  2. verb To hit with a sledgehammer.
  3. noun A low sled drawn by animals, typically on snow, ice or grass. “The sledge ran far better upon the ice; I cannot say the same for the dogs.”
  4. noun (UK) any type of sled or sleigh.
  5. noun A card game resembling all fours and seven-up; old sledge.
  6. verb To drag or draw a sledge.
  7. verb To ride, travel with or transport in a sledge.
  8. verb (chiefly cricket, Australia) To verbally insult or abuse an opponent in order to distract them (considered unsportsmanlike).
  9. noun (chiefly cricket, Australia) An instance of sledging.
  10. proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

forehammer sledgehammer sled sleigh maul

Etymology

From Middle English slegge, from Old English sleċġ (“sledgehammer; mallet”), from Proto-Germanic *slagjǭ. Cognate with Dutch slegge (“sledge”), Swedish slägga (“sledge”), Norwegian Bokmål slegge (“sledge”), Norwegian Nynorsk sleggje (“sledge”), Icelandic sleggja (“sledge”).

Dialectal Dutch sleedse, from Middle Dutch sleedse, from the root of sled.

From Sledge (“a surname”), influenced by sledgehammer. First attested in the 1960s in Australian English.
According to Ian Chappell, originated in Adelaide during the 1963/4 or 1964/5 Sheffield Shield season. A cricketer who swore in the presence of a woman was taken to be as subtle as a sledgehammer (meaning unsubtle) and was called “Percy” or “Sledge”, from singer Percy Sledge (whose song When a Man Loves a Woman was a hit at the time). Directing insults or obscenities at the opposition team then became known as sledging.

From sledge.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A strong vehicle with low runners or low wheels; or one without wheels or runners, made of plank slightly turned up at one end, used for transporting loads upon the snow, ice, or bare ground; a sled.
  2. noun A hurdle on which, formerly, traitors were drawn to the place of execution. [Eng.] Sir W. Scott.
  3. verb To travel or convey in a sledge or sledges. Howitt.
  4. noun A large, heavy hammer, usually wielded with both hands; --called also sledge hammer.

Etymology [Perhaps from sleds, pl. of sled, confused with sledge a hammer. See Sled, n.]

Etymology [AS. slecge,from sleán to strike, beat. See Slay, v. t.]

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