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

spank

/ˈspeɪ̯ŋk/ verb, noun

Forms spanks spanking spanked spaink spenk

  1. verb (transitive) To beat, smack or slap a person's buttocks, with the bare hand or other object, as punishment, or for sexual gratification.
  2. verb (transitive) To soundly defeat, to trounce.
  3. verb (transitive) To hit very hard.
  4. noun An instance of spanking, separately or part of a multiple blows-beating; a smack, swat, or slap.
  5. noun A slapping sound, as produced by spanking.
  6. noun (slang, euphemistic) An instance of masturbation. “spank bank”
  7. verb (intransitive) To move quickly and nimbly on foot; to stride or run at a brisk pace.
  8. verb (intransitive) To move or turn rapidly, as the gears of a machine or the sails of a ship. “The ship was really spanking along.”
  9. verb (ambitransitive) To shoot out or throw violently; to hurl or knock out.
  10. noun (dialectal) A leap or bound.

Synonyms

slap rout smack thrash trounce thump wallop paddle larrup

Etymology

Uncertain. Possibly imitative, or perhaps a special use of Etymology 2 (below) in the sense of a horse stamping its foot against the ground. There is no evidence of a relation with Portuguese espancar (“to batter, strike”).

Uncertain. Likely of Dutch or Low German origin. Compare North Frisian spanke (“to step with pride”), Saterland Frisian spankje (“to splash”), dialectal Dutch spanken (“to limp, hobble”), Dutch spankeren (“to run away quickly, gallop off”), German Low German spenkern (“to burst, explode, shatter, splash, spray”), Danish spanke (“to strut”), Swedish spånka (“to strut proudly”); originally, equivalent to span + -k. Compare also dialectal English spang (“to leap, bound; shoot out, fling”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To strike, as the breech, with the open hand; to slap.
  2. noun A blow with the open hand; a slap.
  3. verb To move with a quick, lively step between a trot and gallop; to move quickly. Thackeray.

Etymology [Of unknown origin; cf. LG. spakken, spenkern, to run and spring about quickly.]

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