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

tiff

/tɪf/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms tiffs tiffing tiffed

  1. noun A (generally small) argument or disagreement; a petty quarrel, a spat.
  2. noun (archaic) A brief outburst or period of bad temper; a snit; also (rare) any brief outburst (for example, of laughter).
  3. verb (intransitive, informal) To be involved in a (generally small) argument or disagreement; to squabble.
  4. verb (intransitive, British India) Synonym of tiffin (“to eat a (light) midday meal or snack; to have lunch, to lunch”).
  5. noun (countable) A small draught or sip of liquor (especially diluted or poor quality liquor) or punch.
  6. noun (uncountable) Liquor, especially diluted or poor quality liquor.
  7. verb (transitive, informal or slang, archaic or obsolete) To drink (liquor), especially slowly or in small amounts; to sip.
  8. verb (transitive, reflexive) To deck out or dress (someone or oneself, or their body or hair).
  9. verb (intransitive) To deck out or dress one's body or hair.
  10. noun (obsolete, rare) The way in which one's body or hair is decked out or dressed.
  11. noun (computer graphics) An image stored in the TIFF format.
  12. noun (computing) A file using TIFF file format
  13. proper noun A diminutive of the female given name Tiffany.

Synonyms

tift miff spat squabble barney bicker quarrel wrangle argue quibble row pettifog tiffin whiff getup outfit tif .tif .tiff bickering pettifoggery fuss

Etymology

The origin of the noun is unknown; it is possibly originally dialectal and may be onomatopoeic, representing the sound of a small puff of air or gas. The verb is derived from the noun.

Probably a back-formation from or clipping of tiff(in) (“(light) midday meal or snack, luncheon”).

The origin of the noun is unknown; it may be onomatopoeic, representing the sound of liquor being sipped. The verb is derived from the noun.

From Middle English tiffen, tif, tiffe (“to adorn, dress up; to arrange (a hairstyle); to disguise”), from Old French tifer, tiffer (“to adorn, dress up”) (modern French attifer (“to deck out”)), from Frankish *tipfōn, *tippōn (“to decorate”), possibly related to Proto-Germanic *tuppaz (“plait of hair, tuft; summit, top”) (see the further etymology at that entry).
The noun is derived from the verb.
* Dutch tippen (“to clip the points or ends of the hair”)
* English tip (noun)
* Middle High German zipfen (“to bob; to flutter; to frisk, prance, skip; to sashay”)
* Old Norse tippa (“point, tip”)

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Liquor; especially, a small draught of liquor. "Sipping his tiff of brandy punch." Sir W. Scott.
  2. noun A fit of anger or peevishness; a slight altercation or contention.
  3. verb To be in a pet. She tiffed with Tim, she ran from Ralph. Landor.
  4. verb To deck out; to dress. [Obs.] A. Tucker.

Etymology [Originally, a sniff, sniffing; cf. Icel. a smell, to sniff, Norw. tev a drawing in of the breath, teva to sniff, smell, dial. Sw. tüv smell, scent, taste.]

Etymology [OE. tiffen, OF. tiffer, tifer, to bedizen; cf. D. tippen to clip the points or ends of the hair, E. tip, n.]

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