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

tram

/tɹam/ noun, verb

Forms trams tramming trammed

  1. noun (Australia, UK, rail transport) A passenger vehicle for public use that runs on tracks in the road (called a streetcar or trolley in North America).
  2. noun A similar vehicle for carrying materials.
  3. noun (US, rail transport) A people mover.
  4. noun (US) An aerial cable car.
  5. noun (US) A train with wheels that runs on a road; a trackless train.
  6. noun (UK, historical) A car on a horse railway or tramway (horse trams preceded electric trams).
  7. noun (obsolete) The shaft of a cart.
  8. noun (obsolete) One of the rails of a tramway.
  9. verb (intransitive) To operate, or conduct the business of, a tramway.
  10. verb (intransitive) To travel by tram.
  11. verb (transitive) To transport (material) by tram.
  12. verb (US, transitive) To align a component in mechanical engineering or metalworking, particularly the spindle of a mill or drill press, as historically accomplished using a trammel.
  13. noun (weaving) A silk thread formed of two or more threads twisted together, used especially for the weft, or cross threads, of the best quality of velvets and silk goods.
  14. verb (weaving) To weave in this manner.

Synonyms

streetcar trolley tramway aerial tramway cable tramway ropeway tramcar trolley car

Etymology

Early 16th century, borrowed from Scots, probably from Low German traam (“tram, shaft of a barrow”), from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch trame (“narrow shaft, beam”), said to be ultimately from a lost West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) word, probably from Proto-Germanic *drum (“splinter, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *térmn̥ (“peg, post, boundary”), cognate with Latin terminus.
Compare Middle Low German treme; West Flemish traam, trame.
The popular derivation from the surname of the English pioneer tramway builder Benjamin Outram (1764–1805) is false: the term pre-dated him.
The sense of a rail vehicle derives from tram-way, in its earliest sense meaning literally a log-covered road, but later applied to the earliest wooden railways, used for transporting coal in carts which came to be called "trams".

From Spanish trama, or French trame (“weft”). Doublet of trama.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A four-wheeled truck running on rails, and used in a mine, as for carrying coal or ore.
  2. noun The shaft of a cart. [Prov. Eng.] De Quincey.
  3. noun A silk thread formed of two or more threads twisted together, used especially for the weft, or cross threads, of the best quality of velvets and silk goods.

Etymology [Prov. E. tram a coal wagon, the shaft of a cart or carriage, a beam or bar; probably of Scand, origin; cf. OSw. tråm, trum, a beam, OD. drom, Prov. & OHG. tram.]

Etymology [Sp. trama weft, or F. trame.]

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