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

tadpole

/ˈtædpoʊl/ noun

Forms tadpoles

  1. noun A young toad or frog in its larval stage of development that lives in water, has a tail and no legs, and, like a fish, breathes through gills.
  2. noun (by extension) The aquatic larva of any amphibian. “salamander tadpole”
  3. noun A type of cargo bike that has two wheels in front and one in back.
  4. noun (psychology) A child's basic drawing of a human being, having a detailed head but only sticks for the body and limbs.
  5. noun (informal) A small child.
  6. noun (informal, derogatory) An insignificant person.

Synonyms

polliwog porriwiggle pollywog

Etymology

From Middle English tadpolle, taddepol, equivalent to toad + poll (“head”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The young aquatic larva of any amphibian. In this stage it breathes by means of external or internal gills, is at first destitute of legs, and has a finlike tail. Called also polliwig, polliwog, porwiggle, or purwiggy.
  2. noun The hooded merganser. [Local, U.S.] Tadpole fish. (Zoöl.) See Forkbeard (a).

Etymology [OE. tadde toad (AS. tadie, tadige) + poll; properly, a toad that is or seems all head. See Toad, and Poll.]

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