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

gallows

UK /ˈɡæləʊz/ · US /ˈɡæloʊz/ noun, adverb

Forms gallowses

  1. noun A wooden framework on which persons are executed by hanging.
  2. noun (colloquial, obsolete) A wretch who deserves to be hanged.
  3. noun (printing, obsolete) The rest for the tympan when raised.
  4. noun (colloquial, obsolete) Suspenders; braces.
  5. noun Any contrivance with posts and crossbeam for suspending objects.
  6. noun The main frame of a beam engine.
  7. adverb (colloquial, archaic) Utterly; very.

Synonyms

gibbet gallows tree gallow tree hanging tree crook nubbing cheat Tyburn tree

Etymology

From Middle English galwes, galewes, plural of galwe, galowe, from Old English galga, gealga, from Proto-West Germanic *galgō, from Proto-Germanic *galgô, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰalgʰ-, *ǵʰalg- (“long switch, rod, shaft, pole, perch”). The plural construction probably refers to the vertical and horizontal beams.
Compare West Frisian galge, Dutch galg, German Galgen, Danish galge, Icelandic gálgi.
For the pronunciation /ˈɡæləs/, compare bellows, bodice.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A frame from which is suspended the rope with which criminals are executed by hanging, usually consisting of two upright posts and a crossbeam on the top; also, a like frame for suspending anything.
  2. noun A wretch who deserves the gallows. [R.] Shak.

Etymology [OE. galwes, pl., AS. galga, gealga, gallows, cross; akin to D. galg gallows, OS. & OHG. galgo, G. galgen, Icel. galgi, Sw. & Dan. galge, Goth. galga a cross. Etymologically and historically considered, gallows is a noun in the plural number, but it is used as a singular, and hence is preceded by a; as, a gallows.]

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