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

spanner

/ˈspænə/ noun, verb

Forms spanners spannering spannered

  1. noun (Commonwealth, UK, Ireland) A hand tool for adjusting nuts and bolts. “Pass me that spanner, Jake; there's just one more bolt to screw in.”
  2. noun (Canada, US) Any of certain types of such a tool that have a pin or hook to engage the driven object. “The groove in this toolholder is what the spanner grabs onto when you are changing the tool.”
  3. noun (rare) One who, or that which, spans.
  4. noun (graph theory) A (usually sparse) graph whose shortest path distances approximate those in a dense graph or other metric space.
  5. noun (weaponry) A hand tool shaped like a small crank handle, for winding the spring of a wheel lock on a musket.
  6. noun (obsolete) A device in early steam engines for moving the valves for the alternate admission and shutting off of the steam.
  7. noun (UK, Ireland) A problem, dilemma or obstacle; something unexpected or troublesome (in the phrase spanner in the works) “Halfway through the production of Macbeth, the director found that the stage was smaller than he expected. This really threw a spanner in the works.”
  8. noun (UK, Ireland, mildly derogatory) A stupid or unintelligent person; one prone to making mistakes, especially in language. “You spanner, Rodney! I wanted some time, not a bunch of thyme!”
  9. verb To use a spanner; to fix with a spanner

Synonyms

wrench

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun One who, or that which, spans.
  2. noun The lock of a fusee or carbine; also, the fusee or carbine itself.

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