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

tangent

/ˈtæn.d͡ʒənt/ noun, adjective, verb

Forms tangents tangenting tangented

  1. noun (differential geometry) A straight line touching a curve at a single point without crossing it there.
  2. noun (mathematics) A function of an angle that gives the ratio of the sine to the cosine, in either the real or complex numbers. Symbols: tan, tg.
  3. noun (transferred sense) A course suddenly and unexpectedly divergent from one which was previously being followed (especially one embarked on before reaching the end of the previous course).
  4. noun A new topic of discussion unrelated to the one which came before it, arrived at due to a single (peripheral or trivial) point in common with it. “I believe we went off onto a tangent when we started talking about monkeys on unicycles at his retirement party.”
  5. noun (art) A visual interaction between two or more lines or edges that creates a perceived relationship between them, often in a way that the artist did not intend.
  6. noun (music) A small metal blade in a clavichord that strikes the strings to produce sound.
  7. adjective (geometry) Touching a curve at a single point but not crossing it at that point.
  8. adjective Of a topic, only loosely related to a main topic.
  9. adjective (rail transport, of track) Straight; not horizontally curved. “The collision occurred on a two-mile stretch of tangent track.”
  10. verb (intransitive, informal, rare) Synonym of fly off at a tangent (“to digress from a topic”).

Synonyms

tangent line tangential fly off at a tangent tan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin tangentem, the accusative of tangēns (“touching”) (in the phrase līnea tangēns (“a touching line”)), the present participle of the verb tangō (“touch”, verb), from Proto-Italic *tangō, from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂g- (“to touch”).
Cognate with Old English þaccian (“to touch lightly, pat, stroke”). More at thack, thwack.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A tangent line curve, or surface; specifically, that portion of the straight line tangent to a curve that is between the point of tangency and a given line, the given line being, for example, the axis of abscissas, or a radius of a circle produced. See Trigonometrical function, under Function. Artificial, or Logarithmic, tangent, the logarithm of the natural tangent of an arc. -- Natural tangent, a decimal expressing the length of the tangent of an arc, the radius being reckoned unity.
  2. adjective Touching; touching at a single point; specifically (Geom.)
  3. adjective meeting a curve or surface at a point and having at that point the same direction as the curve or surface; --said of a straight line, curve, or surface; as, a line tangent to a curve; a curve tangent to a surface; tangent surfaces. Tangent plane (Geom.), a plane which touches a surface in a point or line.

Etymology [L. tangens, -entis, p.pr. of tangere to touch; akin to Gr. tangente. Cf. Attain, Contaminate, Contingent, Entire, Tact, Taste, Tax, v. t.]

Etymology [L. tangens, -entis, p.pr.]

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