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

snifter

UK /ˈsnɪftə/ · US /ˈsnɪftəɹ/ verb, noun

Forms snifters sniftering sniftered

  1. verb (intransitive) To sniff; also, to snivel or snuffle.
  2. verb (transitive, archaic, rare) Followed by out: to speak (words) in a nasal, snuffling manner.
  3. noun (chiefly Northern England, Scotland) A sniff.
  4. noun (chiefly Northern England, Scotland) A strong or severe wind.
  5. noun (originally and chiefly US) A small, wide, pear-shaped glass used for drinking aromatic liquors such as bourbon and brandy.
  6. noun (originally US, informal) Synonym of nip (“a small amount of an alcoholic beverage, especially one equivalent to what a snifter (noun sense 2.2) might hold”)
  7. noun (US, slang) Synonym of cocaine addict; a sniffer.
  8. noun (US, slang) A small amount of cocaine taken by inhaling through the nose.
  9. noun (US, slang) A handheld device used to detect signals from radio transmitters; a sniffer.

Synonyms

brandy bowl brandy glass brandy snifter cognac glass whiskey glass nip cocaine addict

Etymology

The verb is derived from Middle English snifteren, snifter, snyfter (“to sniffle”), possibly from *snift (possibly derived from an Old Norse word—compare Old Danish snifte and Swedish snyfta (“to sniffle; to sob”); probably ultimately imitative) + -er- (frequentative suffix) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).
The noun is derived from the verb.

Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “snifter”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details