Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings
Vowels
| iː | see | ɪ | sit | e / ɛ | bed | æ | cat |
| ɑː | father | ɒ | hot (UK) | ɔː | law | ʊ | put |
| uː | too | ʌ | cup | ɜː | bird | ə | about |
| eɪ | day | aɪ | my | ɔɪ | boy | aʊ | now |
| əʊ / oʊ | go (UK / US) | ɪə | near | eə | hair | ʊə | tour |
Consonants that look unusual
| θ | thin | ð | this | ʃ | she | ʒ | measure |
| tʃ | church | dʒ | judge | ŋ | sing | j | yes |
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
Results for “erm”
- ermine noun, adjective, verbA weasel found in northern latitudes (Mustela erminea in Eurasia, Alaska, and the Arctic, Mustela haidarum in Haida Gwaii, Mustela richards…
- berm noun, verbA narrow ledge or shelf, as along the top or bottom of a slope.
- germ noun, verbThe embryo of a seed, especially of a seed used as a cereal or grain. See Wikipedia article on cereal germ.
- herm noun, proper nounA rectangular pillar bearing a bust of Hermes, once used as a boundary marker and later as decoration.
- perm verb, noun, proper nounTo give hair a perm, using heat, chemicals etc.
- term noun, verb, adjective(original meaning, by derivation) That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary, terminus.
- derma nounThe inner layer of the skin.
- fermi noun, proper nounAn obsolete name of the unit of length equal to one femtometre (10⁻¹⁵ m).
- germy adjective(informal) That carries germs.
- sperm noun, verb(countable) The reproductive cell or gamete of the male; a spermatozoon.
- terms noun, verbplural of term
- therm noun, verbA unit of heat equal to 100,000 British thermal units, often used in the context of natural gas.
- dermal adjective, noun(anatomy) Of or pertaining to skin or integument (or other forms of tissue)
- dermic adjective(anatomy) Of or relating to the dermis or skin.
- dermis noun(anatomy, medicine) The tissue of the skin underlying the epidermis.
- Fermat proper nounA French surname.
- german adjective, noun, proper noun(obsolete except in set terms) Having the same mother and father; a full (brother or sister).
- Herman proper nounA male given name from the Germanic languages.
- Hermes proper noun, noun(Greek mythology) The herald and messenger of the gods, and the god of roads, commerce, invention, cunning, and theft.
- hermit nounA religious recluse; someone who lives alone for religious reasons; an eremite.
- merman nounA legendary creature, human male from the waist up, fishlike from the waist down.
- permed adjectiveThat has been given a perm (permanent wave)
- Permic proper nounA group of Finno-Ugric languages spoken in the northwest Urals, including Komi and Udmurt.
- permit verb, noun(transitive) To allow (something) to happen, to give permission for.
- sermon noun, verbReligious discourse; a written or spoken address on a religious or moral matter.
- termer noun(in combinations) Someone who is in a certain term
- termes nounA termite.
- vermin nounAny of various common types of small insects or other animals which cause harm and annoyance.
- vermis noun(anatomy) A narrow, worm-like structure found in animal brains between the hemispheres of the cerebellum; it is the site of termination of …
- adermin nounSynonym of pyridoxine.
- Bermuda proper noun, nounAn archipelago and overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the North Atlantic Ocean, 580 nautical miles (1074 kilometers) east-southeas…
- euderma nouna genus of Vespertilionidae
- exoderm nounAn outer layer of skin.
- fermata noun(music) The holding of a note or rest for longer than its usual duration.
- ferment verb, nounTo react, using fermentation; especially to produce alcohol by aging or by allowing yeast to act on sugars; to brew.
- fermion noun(particle physics, Standard Model) Any elementary or composite particle that has half-integer spin and thus obeys Fermi–Dirac statistics an…
- fermium noun(chemistry) A transuranic chemical element (symbol Fm) with an atomic number of 100.
- germane adjective, nounRelated to a topic of discussion or consideration.
- Germany proper nounA nation or civilization occupying the country around the Rhine, Elbe, and upper Danube Rivers in Central Europe, taken as a whole under it…
- Hermann proper noun, nounA surname from German borrowed from German Hermann.
- mermaid nounA mythological creature with a woman's head and upper body, and a tail of a fish.
- midterm adjective, nounHalfway through a term, or roughly so.
- Palermo proper nounA port city and comune, the capital of the Metropolitan City of Palermo and the region of Sicily, Italy.
- Permian noun, proper noun, adjectiveAn inhabitant of the Russian region of Perm; specifically, one belonging to a branch of the Finno-Ugric peoples, including Komis and Udmurt…
- permute verb(transitive) To change the order of.
- Sherman proper noun, nounAn English surname originating as an occupation for a sheep-shearer.
- termite noun, verbA white-bodied, wood-consuming insect of the infraorder Isoptera, in the order Blattodea.
- thermal adjective, noun, verb, proper nounPertaining to heat or temperature.
- thermel noun(dated) A thermocouple.
- thermic adjectiveOf, related to, or associated with heat; thermal.
- thermos noun, proper nounA bottle, flask or similar vessel having a vacuum between its inner and outer silvered walls; designed to maintain the temperature of its c…
- Vermeer proper nounA surname.
- Vermont proper nounA state of the United States. Capital: Montpelier.
- alderman noun, proper nounA member of a municipal legislative body in a city or town.
- averment nounThe act of averring, or that which is averred; positive assertion.
- Bermudan noun, adjectiveA person from Bermuda or of Bermudian descent.
- Bermudas proper nounThe islands of Bermuda.
- Doberman nounNonstandard spelling of Dobermann.
- ectoderm noun(biology) The outermost of the three tissue layers in the embryo of a metazoan animal, which produces through development, the epidermis (s…
- endermic adjective(archaic, medicine) Acting through the skin, or by direct application to the skin.