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

sty

/staɪ/ noun, verb

Forms sties stying stied stye stee stie stigh

  1. noun A pen or enclosure for swine.
  2. noun (figurative) A messy, dirty or debauched place.
  3. verb (transitive) To place in, or as if in, a sty.
  4. verb (transitive) To live in a sty, or any messy or dirty place.
  5. verb (obsolete) To ascend, rise up, climb.
  6. noun (UK, dialectal) A ladder.
  7. noun (pathology) An inflammation of the eyelid.

Synonyms

pigpen pigsty hovel stye hordeolum eye infection

Etymology

From Middle English sty, from Old English stī, stiġ (“sty, pen, a wooden enclosure; hall”, chiefly in compounds), from Proto-West Germanic *stī, from Proto-Germanic *stiją.
Cognate with German Stiege (“wooden crate”), dialectal German Steige (“hen-coop”), Danish sti (“sty, enclosure for swine, sheep, hens, etc.”), Swedish stia (“sty for pigs, geese, etc.”), Norwegian sti (“flock of sheep”), Icelandic stía (“a kennel”).

From Middle English stien, stiȝen, stighen, from Old English stīgan (“to go; ascend, mount”), from Proto-West Germanic *stīgan, from Proto-Germanic *stīganą, from Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ-.
Cognate with Dutch stijgen, German steigen, Danish stige, Norwegian Bokmål stige, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish stiga, Old Norse stíga.

From Middle English styanye, mistaken as "sty on eye" yet composed of Old English stīġend (“sty”, literally “riser”), agent noun from stīgan (“to rise”) + Middle English yë (“eye”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A pen or inclosure for swine.
  2. noun A place of bestial debauchery.
  3. verb To shut up in, or as in, a sty. Shak.
  4. verb To soar; to ascend; to mount. See Stirrup. [Obs.]

Etymology [AS. stigu, fr. stigan to rise; originally, probably, a place into which animals climbed or went up. *164. See Sty, v. i., and cf. Steward.]

Etymology [OE. stien, sti, AS. stigan to rise; akin to D. stijgen, OS. & OHG. stigan, G. steigen, Icel. stiga, Sw. stiga, Dan. stige, Goth. steigan, L. vestigium footstep, Gr. stigh to mount. Cf. Distich, Stair steps, Stirrup, Sty a boil, a pen for swine, Vestige.]

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