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

alabaster

UK /ˈæl.əˌbɑːs.tə/ · US /ˈæl.əˌbæs.tɚ/ noun, adjective, proper noun

Forms alabasters alabastre alablaster

  1. noun A fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum, used ornamentally.
  2. noun (historical) A variety of calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.
  3. noun A sculpture executed in alabaster.
  4. noun An off-white color, like that of alabaster.
  5. adjective Made of alabaster. “The crown is stored in an alabaster box with an onyx handle and a gold lock.”
  6. adjective Resembling alabaster; white, pale, smooth, translucent. “An ominous alabaster fog settled in the valley.”
  7. proper noun A city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States.

Synonyms

alabastrine oriental alabaster onyx marble Mexican onyx

Etymology

From Middle English alabastre, from Old French alabastre, from Latin alabaster (“box for perfumes or unguents”), from Ancient Greek ἀλάβαστρος (alábastros), from earlier ἀλάβαστος (alábastos, “vase without handles for storing perfumes”). This may further derive from Egyptian ꜥj-r-bꜣstjt (“vessel of the Egyptian goddess Bast”). The Latin suffix -aster is unrelated, but may have influenced the spelling of the borrowing from Ancient Greek (whence a direct loan could have been rendered as *alabastrus).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun (a) A compact variety or sulphate of lime, or gypsum, of fine texture, and usually white and translucent, but sometimes yellow, red, or gray. It is carved into vases, mantel ornaments, etc. (b) A hard, compact variety of carbonate of lime, somewhat translucent, or of banded shades of color; stalagmite. The name is used in this sense by Pliny. It is sometimes distinguished as oriental alabaster.
  2. noun A box or vessel for holding odoriferous ointments, etc.; --so called from the stone of which it was originally made. Fosbroke.

Etymology [L. alabaster, Gr. Alabastron, the name of a town in Egypt, near which it was common: cf. OF. alabastre, F. albâtre.]

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