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

handy

/ˈhæn.di/ adjective, noun, proper noun

Forms handier handiest handies hendy

  1. adjective Easy to use, useful. “Some people regard duct tape as a handy fix-all.”
  2. adjective Nearby, within reach. “You wouldn’t have a screwdriver handy, would you?”
  3. adjective Dexterous, skilful. (of a person) “She's very handy: she made all her own kitchen cupboards.”
  4. adjective (slang) Physically violent; tending to use one's fists.
  5. adjective Of a freight ship: having a small cargo capacity (less than 40,000 DWT); belonging to the handysize class.
  6. noun (childish) The hand.
  7. noun (MLE, slang) A handgun.
  8. noun (vulgar, slang) A hand job.
  9. noun (non-native speakers' English) (mostly used by Germans) Synonym of mobile phone.
  10. proper noun A surname transferred from the nickname.
  11. proper noun (rare) A male given name from English.

Synonyms

at hand on hand to hand crafty wristy W. C. Handy William Christopher Handy ready to hand

Antonyms

awkward

Etymology

From Middle English handy, hondi (attested in personal names), alteration of earlier hendi (“handy, skillful”), from Old English *hendiġ (“skillful”) (attested in listhendiġ (“skilled in art”)), from Proto-West Germanic *handīg, *handag, *handug, from Proto-Germanic *handugaz (“handy, skillful, nimble”), from *handuz (“hand”), equivalent to hand + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian jäntich (“handy”), Middle Low German handich (“skillful, apt”), Middle High German handec, hendec (“manual, hand-held”), Old Norse hǫndugr (“efficient”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌿𐌲𐍃 (handugs, “wise, clever”). Akin to Dutch handig (“handy”), Norwegian hendig (“handy”), Swedish händig (“handy”).

From hand + -y (diminutive suffix).

Clipping of handgun and hand job followed by -y (diminutive suffix).

Disputed; see German Handy: according to some commentators, this meaning is originally from German (a condensed form of Handfunktelefon), whereas others claim there was an early, but now neglected, antetype of it in English (from etymology 1).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Performed by the hand. [Obs.]
  2. adjective Skillful in using the hand; dexterous; ready; adroit. "Each is handy in his way." Dryden.

Etymology [OE. hendi, AS. hendig (in comp.), fr. hand hand; akin to D. handig, Goth. handugs clever, wise.]

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

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “handy” (best matches first).