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

catfish

/ˈkætfɪʃ/ noun, verb

Forms catfishes catfishing catfished

  1. noun Any fish of the order Siluriformes, mainly found in fresh water, lacking scales, and having barbels like whiskers around the mouth.
  2. noun The meat of such a fish, popular in the Southern U.S. and Central Europe.
  3. verb (intransitive) To fish for catfish. “I only use this rod for catfishing.”
  4. noun (Internet) Someone who creates a false profile on a social media platform in order to deceive people.
  5. noun (Internet) Such a false profile.
  6. verb (Internet, slang, transitive) To create and operate a fake online profile to deceive (someone).

Synonyms

catlet sheat sheatfish river chicken catfisher mudcat wolffish wolf fish siluriform fish

Etymology

From cat + fish. Likely so named for its prominent barbels like a cat's whiskers. Compare West Frisian katfisk (“catfish”), Dutch katvis (“catfish”). Compare also German Seekatze (“catfish”, literally “sea-cat”).

From the 2010 documentary Catfish, supposedly inspired by the practice of fishermen keeping cod active by storing them with catfish (see sense 1) which nip at their tails.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A name given in the United States to various species of siluroid fishes; as, the yellow cat (Amiurus natalis); the bind cat (Gronias nigrilabrus); the mud cat (Pilodictic oilwaris), the stone cat (Noturus flavus); the sea cat (Arius felis), etc. This name is also sometimes applied to the wolf fish. See Bullhead.

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