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

soften

UK /ˈsɒfən/ · US /ˈsɔfən/ verb

Forms softens softening softened

  1. verb (transitive) To make something soft or softer. “Soften the butter before beating in the sugar.”
  2. verb (transitive) To undermine the morale of someone (often soften up). “Before the invasion, we softened up the enemy with the artillery.”
  3. verb (transitive) To make less harsh. “Having second thoughts, I softened my criticism.”
  4. verb (intransitive) To become soft or softer. “The butter softened as it warmed up.”
  5. verb (ambitransitive, phonology) To become or make (a consonant) more lenis, to lenite.
  6. verb (Slavic phonology) To palatalize.

Synonyms

subdue temper emolliate mollify tenderize dampen damp weaken break yield relent cushion buffer mince moderate

Antonyms

harden sharpen

Etymology

From Middle English softenen, softnen, equivalent to soft + -en.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To make soft or more soft. Specifically: -- (a) To render less hard; --said of matter.
  2. verb To become soft or softened, or less rude, harsh, severe, or obdurate.

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “soften” (best matches first).