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

twiddle

/ˈtwɪdəl/ verb, noun

Forms twiddles twiddling twiddled

  1. verb (transitive) To wiggle, fidget or play with; to move around. “She sat and nervously twiddled her hair while she waited.”
  2. verb (transitive, computing) To flip or switch two adjacent bits (binary digits).
  3. verb (transitive, mathematics) To be in an equivalence relation with.
  4. verb (intransitive) To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles.
  5. noun A slight twist with the fingers.
  6. noun A wiggling movement.
  7. noun A small decorative embellishment.
  8. noun A small musical flourish.
  9. noun A tilde.
  10. noun A drawn line that is curvy or twisted.
  11. noun A tiny bit.
  12. noun A tizzy.

Synonyms

twirl swirl whirl fiddle with

Etymology

Unknown. Perhaps a blend of twirl, twist, or twitch; fiddle.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To touch lightly, or play with; to tweedle; to twirl; as, to twiddle one's thumbs; to twiddle a watch key. [Written also twidle.]
  2. verb To play with anything; hence, to be busy about trifles.
  3. noun A slight twist with the fingers.
  4. noun A pimple. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Etymology [Probably of imitative origin. Cf. Tweedle.]

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