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

butler

UK /ˈbʌt.lə(ɹ)/ · US /ˈbʌt.lɚ/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms butlers butlering butlered

  1. noun A manservant having charge of wines and liquors.
  2. noun The chief male servant of a household who has charge of other employees, receives guests, directs the serving of meals, and performs various personal services.
  3. noun A valet, a male personal attendant.
  4. verb To buttle, to dispense wines or liquors; to take the place of a butler.
  5. proper noun An English and Irish surname from Middle English [in turn originating as an occupation], for someone who was a butler or wine servant.
  6. proper noun An Anglicized form of the French Boutilier, Boutillier, Bouthillier surname from French of similar derivation.
  7. proper noun A male given name.
  8. proper noun A town, the county seat of Choctaw County, Alabama.
  9. proper noun A populated place in Mohave County, Arizona.
  10. proper noun A ghost town in Fresno County, California.
  11. proper noun A small city, the county seat of Taylor County, Georgia.
  12. proper noun A small village in Montgomery County, Illinois.

Synonyms

footman pantryman Samuel Butler

Etymology

From Middle English butler, butlere, boteler, botelere, from Old French buttiler, butiller, boteillier (“officer in charge of wine”), from Medieval Latin botellārius, equivalent to bottle + -er. Piecewise doublet of bottler.

* (English surname): From Middle English Butler.
* (Anglicized surname): From French Boutilier, Boutillier, Bouthillier.
* (placename): From the surname

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun An officer in a king's or a nobleman's household, whose principal business it is to take charge of the liquors, plate, etc.; the head servant in a large house.

Etymology [OE. boteler, F. bouteillier a bottle-bearer, a cupbearer, fr. LL. buticularius, fr. buticula bottle. See Bottle a hollow vessel.]

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