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

snowball

UK /ˈsnəʊbɔːl/ · US /ˈsnoʊbɔl/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun

Forms snowballs snowballing snowballed

  1. noun A ball of snow, usually one made in the hand and thrown for amusement in a snowball fight; also a larger ball of snow made by rolling a snowball around in snow that sticks to it and increases its diameter.
  2. noun A cocktail made from lemonade and advocaat.
  3. noun (figuratively) Something that snowballs (grows rapidly out of control).
  4. noun (sex) A sex act involving passing ejaculated semen from one person's mouth to another's.
  5. noun (US) A type of ice dessert: a snow cone.
  6. noun A small cake, typically cream-filled and covered in chocolate icing and desiccated coconut. “It didn't take long to eat a packetful of snowballs — they are simply delicious.”
  7. adjective Of something with rapid growth, often uncontrolled. Compare snowball effect.
  8. verb (figurative, intransitive) To rapidly grow out of proportion or control, from an initially smaller state. “The high unemployment rates quickly snowballed into a major budget problem for the government.”
  9. verb (intransitive) To play at throwing snowballs.
  10. verb (transitive) To pelt with snowballs; to throw snowballs at.
  11. verb (slang, sex, vulgar, intransitive) To receive ejaculated semen in one's mouth, and to then pass it back and forth between one’s mouth and another person’s mouth.
  12. proper noun A surname transferred from the nickname.
  13. proper noun A locality in the Queanbeyan-Palerang council area, south eastern New South Wales, Australia.

Synonyms

sweet sand verbena Abronia elliptica

Etymology

From Middle English snoweball, snoweballe, snaweballe, snayballe, equivalent to snow + ball. Cognate with Scots snawbaw, German Schneeball, Luxembourgish Schnéiball, Dutch sneeuwbal, Afrikaans sneeubal, Limburgish snieëbal, West Frisian sniebal, Saterland Frisian Sneebaal, Sneebal, Swedish snöboll, Elfdalian sniųoboll, Danish snebold, Norwegian Bokmål snøball, Norwegian Nynorsk snøball and Icelandic snjóbolti.

From snow + ball, probably a nickname for someone who had a patch of white hair or a pale bald patch, amid dark hair.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A round mass of snow pressed or roller together, or anything resembling such a mass.
  2. noun The Guelder-rose. Snowball tree (Bot.), the Guelder-rose.
  3. verb To pelt with snowballs; to throw snowballs at.
  4. verb To throw snowballs.

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