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

tiddlywinks

UK /ˈtɪdəlɪwɪŋks/ · US /ˈtɪdliˌwɪŋks/ noun

Forms Tiddledy-Winks Tiddley Winks tiddleywinks tidley winks

  1. noun (also attributively) A competitive game in which the objective is to flick as many small discs (each called a tiddlywink or wink) as possible into a container (the pot) by pressing on their edges with a larger disc (a shooter or squidger), causing them to jump up from the surface on which they are placed.
  2. noun (figuratively) Especially in the form to play tiddlywinks: a meaningless or unimportant activity.

Synonyms

winks

Etymology

From tiddlywink + -s, possibly from tiddly (“(informal) little, tiny”) + wink (“blinking of one eye”), perhaps borrowed from tiddlywink, etymology 1 (“unlicensed beerhouse or pawnshop; game played using dominoes”, etc.). The game was patented by a British bank clerk, Joseph Assheton Fincher (1863–1900), on 19 October 1889, and the name Tiddledy-Winks trademarked by him the same year. Tiddlywinks is the preferred modern spelling; the earliest known use of this spelling dates from 1894.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Same as Tiddledywinks. Kipling.

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