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

spunk

/spʌŋk/ noun, verb

Forms spunks spunking spunked

  1. noun (countable, obsolete) A spark.
  2. noun (uncountable) Touchwood; tinder.
  3. noun (countable, UK, obsolete) Synonym of taper, a thin stick used for transferring flames, especially a sulfur match.
  4. noun (countable, Scotland, obsolete) Synonym of match, a thin chemically-treated stick used for creating flames.
  5. noun (uncountable) Courage; spirit; mettle; determination.
  6. noun (countable, UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang) An attractive person; a good-looker.
  7. noun (uncountable, chiefly UK, vulgar, slang) Semen.
  8. verb (intransitive, obsolete) To catch fire; flame up.
  9. verb (intransitive, slang, vulgar) To ejaculate. “He spunked into the condom.”
  10. verb (transitive, slang, vulgar) To waste (money etc.).

Synonyms

taper match Adonis beefcake hunk go up in flames catch fire catch on fire combust conflagrate fire go up in smoke ignite light take fire cum blow one's load blow one's wad blow a nut breed kindling tinder touchwood punk heart mettle nerve

Etymology

1530, blend of spark + funk (obsolete, “spark”).
Funk (“spark, touchwood”) is from Middle English funke, fonke (“spark”), from Old English *funca (“spark”), from Proto-West Germanic *funkō, from Proto-Germanic *funkô (“spark”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peng- (“to shine”), and is akin to Middle Low German funke, fanke (“spark”), Middle Dutch vonke (“spark”), Old High German funcho, funko (“spark”), German Funke (“spark”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Wood that readily takes fire; touchwood; also, a kind of tinder made from a species of fungus; punk; amadou. Sir T. Browne.
  2. noun An inflammable temper; spirit; mettle; pluck; as, a man of spunk.

Etymology [Gael. spong, or Ir. sponc, tinder, sponge; cf. AS. sponge a sponge (L. spongia), spon a chip. Cf. Sponge, Punk.]

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