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

b

/b/ numeral, noun, proper noun

Forms bs b's

  1. numeral The second numeral symbol of the English alphabet, called bee and written in the Latin script.
  2. noun The quantity one billion (1,000,000,000), usually used to signify a sum of money. “$2.8 B”
  3. noun (UK) The grade of pencil, “black”, that makes darker marks than grade HB but lighter marks than grade 2B; a pencil with soft lead.
  4. noun (cricket) The number of balls faced by a batsman.
  5. noun (music) Bass.
  6. noun (Australia, euphemistic, countable) Bastard.
  7. noun (euphemistic, countable) Bitch.
  8. noun (immunology, countable) A B cell.
  9. noun A personality type describing people who are relaxed and easygoing and able to engage in leisure activities without worrying about work.
  10. noun An academic grade, better than a C and worse than an A.
  11. noun Signifies a second-tier or second class of a given commodity, group, or category, as in B-movie, B-list, etc. “The television studio revived some of its B characters for the spinoff.”
  12. noun The alternate or secondary part, such as the back side of a phonograph record. Contrasted with ‘A’, which is the primary part.
  13. noun (music) The seventh note in the C major scale.
  14. proper noun (computer languages) A programming language from which C is derived.

Synonyms

bacillus B-complex vitamin B complex vitamin B complex vitamin B B vitamin boron atomic number 5 Bel barn type B group B

Etymology

Abbreviations.

From the Old English letter B, from 7th century replacement by Latin B of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc letter ᛒ (b, beorc).

From abbreviations of various terms beginning with or containing the letter ‘B’.
* (billion): abbreviation of billion
* (cricket): abbreviation of balls
* (bitch): abbreviation of bitch

From the use of the letter ‘B’ as an arbitrary label among other letter labels.
* (personality type): from contrast with the letter ‘A’ and its corresponding personality type
* (academic grade): from the position of the letter ‘B’ in the English alphabet

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