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

squish

/skwɪʃ/ verb, noun

Forms squishes squishing squished

  1. verb (ambitransitive) To squeeze, compress, or crush (especially something moist). “The sandwich tasted fine, even though it had got squished in his lunchbox.”
  2. verb (intransitive) To be compressed or squeezed.
  3. verb (intransitive) To make the sound of something being squeezed or crushed.
  4. verb (ambitransitive) To proceed or make one’s way (somewhere) with the sound of something being squeezed or crushed.
  5. noun (countable, informal) The sound or action of something, especially something moist, being squeezed or crushed.
  6. noun (countable, politics, informal, derogatory) A political moderate; a moderate on a specific issue. “The cadre of squishes in this party may disgree with me.”
  7. noun (uncountable, engineering, often attributive) An effect in internal combustion engines which creates sudden turbulence of the air–fuel mixture as the piston approaches top dead center.
  8. noun (countable, linguistics) A continuum or progression between categories that are normally considered discrete.
  9. noun (countable, slang) A non-romantic and generally non-sexual infatuation with somebody one is not dating, or the object of that infatuation; a platonic crush.
  10. noun (uncountable, UK, slang, archaic) Marmalade.

Synonyms

condense squash astringe compact telescope compactify densitize pack press mash scrunch smush squoosh squeeze thring thrutch squelch splash splosh slosh slop

Etymology

Apparently an alteration of squash, influenced by obsolete squiss (“to squeeze”). Cognate with Scots squische, squies (“to crush, squeeze”). Compare also French esquicher, from Old Occitan esquichar (“to squeeze, squish”). See also squeeze and squelch. The noun is derived from the verb.
The linguistic noun sense 4 was coined in 1972 by the American poet and linguist John R. Ross (1938–2025): see the quotation.
Noun sense 5 (“a non-romantic and generally non-sexual infatuation”) was formed by analogy with crush and possibly smash, both of which have senses as types of compression as well as types of attraction. It was possibly first attested in 1999 (see the quotation) and then later coined or recoined in 2007 by the user Raisin on the forums of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network as "a milder synonym for the word 'crush'". The term was also used with a similar meaning in a 1997 episode of the TV show Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, though the 2007 coining or recoining was apparently independent.

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