Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

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)

-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.

spearhead

UK /ˈspɪə.hɛd/ · US /ˈspɪɹ.hɛd/ noun, verb

Forms spearheads spearheading spearheaded

noun The pointed head, or end, of a spear.
noun Something or somebody leading or initiating an activity (such as an attack or campaign).
noun The leading military unit in an attack.
noun (sports) A player who initiates attacking moves.
verb (transitive, idiomatic) To drive or campaign ardently for (an effort, project, etc.); to direct. “He spearheaded the entire project from day one.”

Synonyms

From Middle English spere-hed; equivalent to spear + head.

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