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

thunderbird

UK /ˈθʌndə.bɜːd/ · US /ˈθʌndɚ.bɝd/ noun, proper noun

Forms thunderbirds

  1. noun (mythology) A mythological bird, often associated with stormy weather, especially in various indigenous North American mythologies.
  2. noun The golden whistler, an Australian insectivorous songbird (Pachycephala pectoralis, formerly Pachycephala gutturalis), whose male is conspicuously marked with black and yellow, and has a black crescent on the breast.
  3. noun (UK, rail transport) A locomotive stored at a strategic point on the network so as to be available to quickly rescue a failed train.
  4. proper noun (computing) Mozilla Thunderbird.
  5. proper noun (US, automotive) Ford Thunderbird.

Etymology

From thunder + bird.

The railway sense is derived from the 1960s TV series Thunderbirds, about a secretive high-tech rescue organization, ultimately from thunderbird.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An Australian insectivorous singing bird (Pachycephala gutturalis). The male is conspicuously marked with black and yellow, and has a black crescent on the breast. Called also white-throated thickhead, orange-breasted thrust, black-crowned thrush, guttural thrush, and black-breasted flycatcher.

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