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

contour

/ˈkɒntɔː/ noun, verb

Forms contours contouring contoured

  1. noun An outline, boundary or border, usually of curved shape. “the low drag contour of a modern automobile”
  2. noun A line on a map or chart delineating those points which have the same altitude or other plotted quantity: a contour line or isopleth; (metonymically) the landform or its surface.
  3. noun (linguistics) a speech sound which behaves as a single segment, but which makes an internal transition from one quality, place, or manner to another.
  4. noun (figurative) A general description giving the most important points.
  5. verb (transitive) To form a more or less curved boundary or border upon.
  6. verb (transitive) To mark with contour lines.
  7. verb (intransitive) To practise the makeup technique of contouring.
  8. verb (figurative) To shape conditions regarding salient points.

Synonyms

contour line shape form configuration conformation

Etymology

Borrowed from French contour, from contourner, equivalent to con- + tour.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The outline of a figure or body, or the line or lines representing such an outline; the line that bounds; periphery.
  2. noun The outline of a horizontal section of the ground, or of works of fortification. Contour feathers (Zoöl.), those feathers that form the general covering of a bird.

Etymology [F. contour, fr. contourner to mark the outlines; con- + tourner to turn. See Turn.]

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