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

chaff

/t͡ʃæf/ noun, verb

Forms chaffs chaffing chaffed

  1. noun The inedible parts of a grain-producing plant. “To separate out the chaff, early cultures tossed baskets of grain into the air and let the wind blow away the lighter chaff.”
  2. noun Straw or hay cut up fine for the food of cattle.
  3. noun (figurative) Any excess or unwanted material, resource, or person; anything worthless.
  4. noun Light jesting talk; banter; raillery.
  5. noun (military) Loose material, e.g. small strips of aluminum foil dropped from aircraft, intended to interfere with radar detection.
  6. verb (intransitive) To use light, idle language by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
  7. verb (transitive) To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language.
  8. verb (transitive) To cut up (straw or hay) for use as cattle feed.

Synonyms

window quiz husk shuck stalk straw stubble kid jolly josh banter

Etymology

From Middle English chaf, from Old English ċeaf, from Proto-West Germanic *kaf. Cognate with Scots caff, Saterland Frisian Sääf, West Frisian tsjêf, Dutch kaf, German Low German Kaff, regional German Kaff.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The glumes or husks of grains and grasses separated from the seed by threshing and winnowing, etc. So take the corn and leave the chaff behind. Dryden.
  2. noun Anything of a comparatively light and worthless character; the refuse part of anything.
  3. verb To use light, idle lagnguage by way of fun or ridicule; to banter.
  4. verb To make fun of; to turn into ridicule by addressing in ironical or bantering language; to quiz.

Etymology [AC. ceaf; akin to D. kaf, G. kaff.]

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “chaff” (best matches first).

All 32 Sanskrit matches →