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

tighten

/ˈtaɪ.tən/ verb

Forms tightens tightening tightened

  1. verb (transitive) To make tighter. “Please tighten that screw a quarter-turn.”
  2. verb (intransitive) To become tighter. “That joint is tightening as the wood dries.”
  3. verb (economics) To make money harder to borrow or obtain. “If the government doesn't tighten the money supply, inflation is certain to be harsh.”
  4. verb (economics) To raise short-term interest rates. “The Fed is expected to tighten by a quarter-point.”

Synonyms

bind brace cinch clench constrict squeeze taughten tauten tense fasten stiffen tighten up constrain reduce

Antonyms

loosen divide liberate

Etymology

Synchronically equivalent to tight + -en, but actually derived from Middle English tighten, from Old English tyhtan, thus originally unrelated to tight (Old English *þiht).

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To draw tighter; to straiten; to make more close in any manner.

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “tighten” (best matches first).