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

chamois

UK /ˈʃæmwɑː/ · US /ʃæmˈwɑ/ noun, adjective, verb

Forms chamoises chamoix chamoising chamoised shamois shamoy

  1. noun A short-horned goat antelope native to mountainous terrain in southern Europe; Rupicapra rupicapra.
  2. noun The traditional colour of chamois leather.
  3. noun An absorbent cloth used for cleaning and polishing, formerly made of chamois leather.
  4. noun (cycling) A padded insert which protects the groin from the bicycle saddle.
  5. adjective Chamois-colored.
  6. verb (transitive) To clean with a chamois leather cloth.

Synonyms

shammy chamois leather chammy chammy leather shammy leather Rupicapra rupicapra

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”). Compare also Old High German gamiza (“chamois”) (whence modern German Gämse).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A small species of antelope (Rupicapra tragus), living on the loftiest mountain ridges of Europe, as the Alps, Pyrenees, etc. It possesses remarkable agility, and is a favorite object of chase.
  2. noun A soft leather made from the skin of the chamois, or from sheepskin, etc.; --called also chamois leather, and chammy or shammy leather. See Shammy.

Etymology [F. chamois, prob. fr. OG. gamz, G. gemse.]

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