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

bellwether

UK /ˈbɛlwɛðə/ · US /ˈbɛlwɛðɚ/ noun

Forms bellwethers bell-wether belwether bellweather bellwhether

  1. noun The leading sheep of a flock, having a bell hung round its neck.
  2. noun (figuratively) Anything that indicates future trends. “Mortgage delinquencies often act as a bellwether for a forthcoming recession.”
  3. noun (finance, figuratively) A stock whose price performance is treated as an indicator of the likely direction of a broader market, sector, or industry.

Synonyms

gauge indicator sign bellwether stock

Etymology

From Middle English belwether, belleweder, equivalent to bell + wether (“castrated ram”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A wether, or sheep, which leads the flock, with a bell on his neck.
  2. noun Hence: A leader. [Contemptuous] Swift.

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