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

spud

/spʌd/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms spuds spudding spudded

  1. noun (informal) A potato.
  2. noun (informal) A hole in a sock.
  3. noun (plumbing) A type of short nut (fastener) threaded on both ends.
  4. noun (obsolete) Anything short and thick.
  5. noun (obsolete, US, dialect) A piece of dough boiled in fat.
  6. noun (slang, usually in the plural) A testicle.
  7. noun (obsolete) A dagger.
  8. noun A digging fork with three broad prongs.
  9. verb (transitive) To dig up weeds with a spud.
  10. verb (drilling, transitive) To begin drilling an oil well; to drill by moving the drill bit and shaft up and down, or by raising and dropping a bit.
  11. verb (roofing, transitive) To remove the roofing aggregate and most of the bituminous top coating by scraping and chipping.
  12. verb (camping, transitive) To set up a recreational vehicle (RV) at a campsite, typically by leveling the RV and connecting it to electric, water, or sewer hookups.
  13. proper noun A game for three or more players, involving the gradual elimination of players by throwing and catching a ball.

Synonyms

potato white potato Irish potato murphy tater stump spud shoot germinate pullulate bourgeon burgeon forth sprout

Etymology

From Middle English spudde (“small knife”). Origin unknown; probably related to Danish spyd, Old Norse spjót (“spear”), German Spieß (“spear; spike; skewer”). Compare English spit (“sharp, pointed rod”). The use of the term for a potato perhaps first appeared in New Zealand and Australian dialect and slang.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A sharp, narrow spade, usually with a long handle, used by farmers for digging up large-rooted weeds; a similarly shaped implement used for various purposes.
  2. noun A dagger. [Obs.] olland.

Etymology [Cf. Dan. spyd a spear.]

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