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

titter

UK /ˈtɪtə(ɹ)/ · US /ˈtɪtɚ/ verb, noun

Forms titters tittering tittered

  1. verb To laugh or giggle in a somewhat subdued or restrained way, as from nervousness or poorly-suppressed amusement.
  2. verb (obsolete) To teeter; to seesaw.
  3. noun A nervous or somewhat repressed giggle.
  4. noun (slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A woman's breast.
  5. noun (slang, obsolete) A girl or young woman.

Synonyms

snicker giggle

Etymology

First attested in the 1610s. Probably from Middle English *titeren, *titren (attested in Middle English titering (“hesitation, vacillation”)), probably a frequentative of Middle English titten (“to waver”), ultimately of imitative origin. Related to Old Norse titra (“to shake, shiver, quiver”) (if not borrowed from it), dialectal Swedish tittra (“to snicker”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *titrōną (“to tremble”).

From tit + -er.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To laugh with the tongue striking against the root of the upper teeth; to laugh with restraint, or without much noise; to giggle.
  2. noun A restrained laugh. "There was a titter of . . . delight on his countenance." Coleridge.
  3. verb To seesaw. See Teeter.

Etymology [Probably of imitative origin.]

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