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

topsy-turvy

UK /ˌtɒpsɪˈtəːvi/ · US /ˌtɑpsiˈtɚvi/ adverb, adjective, noun, verb

Forms topsy-turvier topsy-turviest topsy-turvies topsy-turvys topsy-turvying topsy-turvied topsy-turvyed topside-turvy topsyturvy topsy turvy topsy-turvey

  1. adverb Backwards or upside down; also, having been overturned or upset.
  2. adverb (figurative) Not in the natural order of things; in a disorderly manner; chaotically.
  3. adjective Backwards or upside down.
  4. adjective (figurative) Chaotic; disorderly.
  5. noun (countable) An act of turning something backwards or upside down, or the situation that something is in after this has happened.
  6. noun (countable, figurative) A situation where the natural order of things has been upset.
  7. noun (uncountable, figurative) Chaos, confusion, disorder.
  8. verb (transitive) To turn topsy-turvy or upside down; to invert.
  9. verb (transitive, figurative) To throw into chaos or disorder; to upset.

Synonyms

inverted reversed downside up reverse up so down upside down upsidown upsy-down disorderly higgledy-piggledy hugger-mugger jumbled head over heels heels over head topsy-turvily in great confusion

Etymology

The origin of the adverb and adjective are uncertain. Topsy is probably derived from top or tops, though this does not explain the -sy ending; it has been suggested that the latter comes from so (thus, top so) or from top-set or top-side, modified to match the -y ending of turvy. The term topside-turvy is mentioned in the Anglo-Irish writer Laurence Sterne’s novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759–1767).Turvy is probably derived from a rare (scarcely attested) obsolete English word terve, turve (“to be thrown down; to fall; to dash down; to cast, throw; to turn back or down; to fold or roll over”) + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of; inclined to’), with turve inherited from Middle English terven (“to throw (something) down; to throw (something) into confusion; to level; to resort or turn (to something); to go, move; to turn; to collapse, fall”) […], perhaps from Old English *tierfan (compare Old English tearflian (“to roll over, wallow”)) or from Old English torfian (“to launch, throw; to shoot missiles at; to stone; to be tossed”), from Proto-Germanic *turbōną (“to fling, hurl”), *turbijaną (“to turn, twist”) (whence Old English ġetyrfian (“to assail with missiles; to assault, attack”)), from Proto-Indo-European *derbʰ- (“to spin, twist”). Thus, the term as a whole may literally mean “having the top side thrown or turned down”.
The noun and verb are probably derived from the adverb and adjective.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adverb In an inverted posture; with the top or head downward; upside down; as, to turn a carriage topsy-turvy.

Etymology [Earlier topside-turvey, topsy-tervy; probably for top so turvy; that is, the top as turvy, as it were turvy; where turvy probably means, overturned, fr. AS. torfian to throw.]

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