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

slouch

/ˈslaʊ̯t͡ʃ/ noun, verb

Forms slouches slouching slouched

  1. noun A hanging down of the head; a drooping posture; a limp appearance. “He sat with an unenthusiastic slouch.”
  2. noun Any depression or hanging down, as of a hat brim. “The plant hung in a permanent slouch.”
  3. noun Someone who is slow to act.
  4. noun (dated) An awkward, heavy, clownish fellow.
  5. verb (intransitive) To hang or droop; to adopt a limp posture “Do not slouch when playing a flute.”
  6. verb (intransitive) To walk in a clumsy, lazy manner. “I slouched to the fridge to see if there was anything to eat.”
  7. verb (transitive) To cause to hang down or droop; to depress.

Synonyms

idler loafer laggard underachiever stoop droop loll slump sag

Antonyms

achiever go-getter

Etymology

Unclear. Perhaps from Middle English slugge, from Old Norse slókr (“lazy fellow”). See also Swedish sloka (“to slouch, wilt”), related to Swedish slak (“slack, soft and flexible”) and Latin laxus (“loose, slack”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A hanging down of the head; a drooping attitude; a limp appearance; an ungainly, clownish gait; a sidewise depression or hanging down, as of a hat brim.
  2. noun An awkward, heavy, clownish fellow. [Colloq.] Slouth hat, a soft, limp hat of unstiffened cloth or felt.
  3. verb To droop, as the head.
  4. verb To walk in a clumsy, lazy manner. [Colloq.]

Etymology [Cf. Icel. sla slouching felloew, and E. slack, slug, a lazy fellow.]

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