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

basilisk

/ˈbæzɪlɪsk/ noun, adjective

Forms basilisks basilisc

  1. noun (mythology, folklore, fantasy) A mythical snake-like dragon, so venomous that even its gaze is deadly. “the deadly look of the basilisk”
  2. noun (heraldry) A type of dragon used in heraldry.
  3. noun Any tree-dwelling lizard of the genus Basiliscus: the basilisk lizard.
  4. noun (weaponry) A type of large brass cannon.
  5. noun (philosophy, science fiction) An infohazard or cognitohazard, especially a Langford's basilisk.
  6. adjective Suggesting a basilisk (snake-like dragon): baleful, spellbinding.

Synonyms

cockatrice

Etymology

From Middle English basilicke, borrowed from Old French basilique, from Latin basiliscus, from Ancient Greek βασιλίσκος (basilískos, literally “minor king or chieftain”), from βασιλεύς (basileús, “king”), possibly based on descriptions or rare encounters with different types of cobra which have crown-like patterns on their head; the 'deadly gaze' may have been from the spitting cobra's ability to spit venom into the eyes of predators or prey from a distance. The infohazard sense is a figurative reference to the deadly gaze of the mythical creature. Displaced native Old English fāgwyrm.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A fabulous serpent, or dragon. The ancients alleged that its hissing would drive away all other serpents, and that its breath, and even its look, was fatal. See Cockatrice.
  2. noun A lizard of the genus Basiliscus, belonging to the family Iguanidæ.

Etymology [L. basiliscus, Gr. little king, kind of serpent, dim. of king; -- so named from some prominences on the head resembling a crown.]

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