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

spook

/spʊk/ noun, verb

Forms spooks spooking spooked

  1. noun (informal) A ghost or phantom. “The building was haunted by a couple of spooks.”
  2. noun (informal) A scare or fright. “The big spider gave me a spook.”
  3. noun (espionage, slang) An undercover agent, spy, or intelligence analyst.
  4. noun (slang, dated, offensive, ethnic slur) A black person.
  5. noun (philosophy) A metaphysical manifestation; an artificial distinction or construct.
  6. noun (US, slang, medicine) A psychiatrist.
  7. noun (slang, gambling) A player who engages in hole carding by attempting to glimpse the dealer's hole card when the dealer checks under an ace or a 10 to see if a blackjack is present.
  8. verb (transitive) To frighten or make nervous (especially by startling). “The hunters were spooked when the black cat crossed their path. The movement in the bushes spooked the deer and they ran.”
  9. verb (intransitive) To become frightened (by something startling). “The deer spooked at the sound of the dogs.”
  10. verb (transitive) To haunt.

Synonyms

creep weirdo weirdie weirdy ghost shade wraith specter spectre

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). Cognate with Middle Low German spôk, spûk (“apparition, ghost”), Middle High German gespük (“a haunting”), German Spuk, Danish spøge (“to haunt”), Swedish spöke (“ghost”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A spirit; a ghost; an apparition; a hobgoblin. [Written also spuke.] Ld. Lytton.
  2. noun The chimæra.

Etymology [D. spook; akin to G. spuk, Sw. spöke, Dan. spögelse a specter, spöge to play, sport, joke, spög a play, joke.]

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