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

snowflake

UK /ˈsnəʊ.fleɪk/ · US /ˈsnoʊ.fleɪk/ noun, verb

Forms snowflakes snowflaking snowflaked snow flake snow-flake

  1. noun A crystal of snow, having approximate hexagonal symmetry.
  2. noun Any of several bulbous European plants, of the genus Leucojum, having white flowers.
  3. noun The snow bunting, Plectrophenax nivalis.
  4. noun (slang, derogatory) Someone who believes they are particularly unique and special.
  5. noun (slang, derogatory) Someone hypersensitive to insult or offense, especially a young person with politically correct sensibilities.
  6. noun (ophthalmology) A type of lesion that appears as scattered white-brown spots under high magnification light microscopy.
  7. noun Something that is unique in every presentation.
  8. noun (slang, usually derogatory) A Caucasian person.
  9. verb To fall in the manner of a snowflake.
  10. verb (computing, databases) To arrange (data) into a snowflake schema.

Synonyms

special snowflake flake snow bunting snowbird Plectrophenax nivalis

Etymology

From snow + flake. Compare Saterland Frisian Sneeflokke (“snowflake”), Dutch sneeuwvlok, Luxembourgish Schnéiflack, German Schneeflocke.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A flake, or small filmy mass, of snow.
  2. noun See Snowbird, 1.

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