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

squib

/skwɪb/ noun, verb

Forms squibs squibbing squibbed

  1. noun (military) A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode. “English Navy squibs set fire to two dozen enemy ships in a Dutch harbor during the 16th-century battle against the Spanish Armada.”
  2. noun A similar device used to ignite an explosive or launch a rocket, etc.
  3. noun (mining) A kind of slow match or safety fuse.
  4. noun (US) Any small firecracker sold to the general public, usually in special clusters designed to explode in series after a single master fuse is lit.
  5. noun (firearms) A malfunction in which the fired projectile does not have enough force behind it to exit the barrel, and thus becomes stuck.
  6. noun (automotive) The heating element used to set off the sodium azide pellets in a vehicle's airbag.
  7. noun (film, theater) In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.
  8. noun (dated) A short piece of witty writing; a lampoon.
  9. verb To make a sound like a small explosion. “A Snider squibbed in the jungle.”
  10. verb (colloquial, dated, ambitransitive) To throw squibs; to utter sarcastic or severe reflections; to contend in petty dispute.
  11. verb (Australia) To dodge something difficult, to bottle.

Etymology

Possibly imitative of a small explosion.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A little pipe, or hollow cylinder of paper, filled with powder or combustible matter, to be thrown into the air while burning, so as to burst there with a crack.
  2. noun A kind of slow match or safety fuse.
  3. verb To throw squibs; to utter sarcatic or severe reflections; to contend in petty dispute; as, to squib a little debate. [Colloq.]

Etymology [OE. squippen, swippen, to move swiftky, Icel. svipa to swoop, flash, dart, whip; akin to AS. swipian to whip, and E. swift, a. See Swift, a.]

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