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

washington

UK /ˈwɒʃɪŋtən/ · US /ˈwɑʃɪŋtən/ noun, proper noun

Forms Washingtons

  1. noun Synonym of agawan base (a team game)
  2. proper noun A state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Capital: Olympia. Largest city: Seattle.
  3. proper noun Washington, D.C. (the capital city of the United States).
  4. proper noun District of Columbia (a district of the United States, coterminous with the city of Washington).
  5. proper noun (metonymic) The American government.
  6. proper noun An English habitational surname from Old English.
  7. proper noun (figuratively, metonymic) The federal government or administrative authority of the United States. From the capital city of Washington, D.C.
  8. proper noun A town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England.
  9. proper noun A village and civil parish in Horsham district, West Sussex, England (OS grid ref TQ1212).
  10. noun (slang, US) A U.S. one-dollar bill, which features a portrait of George Washington.

Synonyms

agawan base Washington state State of Washington UW DC D.C. District of Columbia WA Wa. WASH Wash. WSH Wsh. George Washington Washington D.C. American capital capital of the United States Evergreen State Capital President Washington Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington

Etymology

Washington (the town in Tyne and Wear, northeast England): probably from the Old English place name Hwæssingatūn (literally “a settlement of the household of *Hwæssa”), from *Hwæssa (a Saxon chieftain's name) + -ing (“belonging to”) + tūn (“homestead, settlement”). It was attested in 1096 as Wasindone. *Hwæssa is of uncertain origin, said to possibly correspond to waþ (“hunt”) + sige (“victory”), or possibly related to hwæte (“wheat”). There are other theories; more on Wikipedia.
The surname derives from the town, and most places in the United States are named for George Washington.

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “washington”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details