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

sturdy

UK /ˈstɜːdi/ · US /ˈstɜrdi/ adjective, noun, proper noun

Forms sturdier sturdiest Sturdys

  1. adjective Of firm build; stiff; stout; strong. “a sturdy oak tree”
  2. adjective Solid in structure or person. “It was a sturdy building, able to withstand strong winds and cold weather.”
  3. adjective (obsolete) Foolishly obstinate or resolute; stubborn.
  4. adjective Resolute, in a good sense; or firm, unyielding quality. “a man of sturdy piety or patriotism”
  5. noun A disease caused by a coenurus infestation in the brain of an animal, especially a sheep or canid; coenurosis.
  6. proper noun A surname from Middle English.

Synonyms

hardy staunch stalwart roboreous roborean gid turnsick stout uncompromising inflexible tough

Etymology

From Middle English sturdy, stourdy, stordy (“bold, valiant, strong, stern, fierce, rebellious”) (perhaps influenced by Middle English sture, stoure, stor (“strong, robust, harsh, stern, violent, fierce, sturdy”); see English stour), from Old French estourdi (“dazed”), form of estourdir, originally “to daze, to make tipsy (almost drunk)” (Modern French étourdir (“to daze, to make tipsy”)), from Vulgar Latin *exturdire. Latin etymology is unclear – presumably it is ex- + turdus (“thrush (bird)”), but how this should mean “daze” is unclear. A speculative theory is that thrushes eat leftover winery grapes and thus became drunk, but this meets with objections.
Disease in cows and sheep is by extension of sense of “daze”, while sense of “strongly built” is of late 14th century, and relationship to earlier sense is less clear, perhaps from sense of a firm strike (causing a daze) or a strong, violent person.

A nickname from Middle English stourdy (“bold, valiant, reckless”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Foolishly obstinate or resolute; stubborn; unrelenting; unfeeling; stern.
  2. adjective Resolute, in a good sense; or firm, unyielding quality; as, a man of sturdy piety or patriotism.
  3. noun A disease in sheep and cattle, marked by great nervousness, or by dullness and stupor.

Etymology [OE. sturdi inconsiderable, OF. estourdi stunned, giddy, thoughtless, rash, F. étourdi, p.p. of OF. estourdir to stun, to render giddy, to amaze, F. étourdir; of uncertain origin. The sense has probably been influenced by E. stout.]

Etymology [OF. estourdi giddiness, stupefaction.]

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