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

pray

/pɹeɪ/ verb, adverb, proper noun

Forms prays praying prayed

  1. verb (religion) To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc. “Muslims pray in the direction of Mecca.”
  2. verb To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.
  3. verb (obsolete) To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.
  4. verb To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome. “She is praying that the Red Sox will win tonight.”
  5. verb (obsolete or law) To implore, to entreat, to request.
  6. adverb (archaic or formal) Please; used to make a polite request “pray silence for…”
  7. proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

beg implore

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English preien, borrowed from Anglo-Norman preier, from Old French proiier, from Late Latin precāre, from Latin precārī, from prex (“request, petition, prayer”), from Proto-Italic *preks, from Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to request, ask”). Displaced native Old English gebiddan.
Cognate via Indo-European of Old English frignan, fricgan, German fragen, Dutch vragen. Compare deprecate, imprecate, precarious.

Ellipsis of I pray you, I pray thee, whence also prithee.

* As an Irish surname, variant of Prey, from ó Préith, a personal name from Old Irish.
* As an English surname, borrowed (via Middle English) from French pré (“meadow”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun See Pry. [Obs.] Spenser.
  2. verb To make request with earnestness or zeal, as for something desired; to make entreaty or supplication; to offer prayer to a deity or divine being as a religious act; specifically, to address the Supreme Being with adoration, confession, supplication, and thanksgiving.
  3. verb To address earnest request to; to supplicate; to entreat; to implore; to beseech.
  4. verb To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for. I know not how to pray your patience. Shak.

Etymology [OE. preien, OF. preier, F. prier, L. precari, fr. prex, precis, a prayer, a request; akin to Skr. prach to ask, AS. frignan, frinan, fricgan, G. fragen, Goth. fraíhnan. Cf. Deprecate, Imprecate, Precarious.]

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

Sanskrit

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

All 11 Sanskrit matches →