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

superficial

UK /ˌsuːpəˈfɪʃəl/ · US /ˌsupɚˈfɪʃəl/ adjective, noun

Forms superficials

  1. adjective (relational) Existing, occurring, or located on the surface.
  2. adjective (anatomy, relational, often with to) Close to the surface of the body; especially, situated or occurring on the skin or immediately beneath it. “superficial muscles”
  3. adjective Appearing to be true or real only until examined more closely.
  4. adjective Not thorough, deep, or complete; concerned only with the obvious or apparent.
  5. adjective Lacking depth of character or understanding; lacking substance or significance.
  6. adjective (rare) Two-dimensional; drawn on a flat surface.
  7. adjective (UK, architecture) Denoting a quantity of a material expressed in terms of area covered rather than linear dimension or volume. “one superficial foot”
  8. noun (usually in the plural) A surface detail. “He always concentrates on the superficials and fails to see the real issue.”

Synonyms

surficial external cursory facile sketchy glib skin-deep smattering surface-level shallow square trivial

Antonyms

deep in-depth thorough substantive profound

Etymology

Borrowing from Late Latin superficiālis (“of or belonging to the surface”), from superficiēs (“top, surface”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Of or pertaining to the superficies, or surface; lying on the surface; shallow; not deep; as, a superficial color; a superficial covering; superficial measure or contents; superficial tillage.
  2. adjective Reaching or comprehending only what is obvious or apparent; not deep or profound; shallow; --said especially in respect to study, learning, and the like; as, a superficial scholar; superficial knowledge.

Etymology [L. superficialis: cf. F. superficiel. See Superficies.]

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

Sanskrit

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

All 10 Sanskrit matches →