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

ivy

/ˈaɪvi/ noun, proper noun

Forms ivies Ivys

  1. noun Any of several woody, climbing, or trailing evergreen plants of the genus Hedera.
  2. noun (by extension) Any similar plant of any genus.
  3. proper noun A unisex given name from English.
  4. proper noun A female given name from English; popular in the UK in the beginning of the 20th century.
  5. proper noun (rare) A male given name from English.
  6. proper noun (rare) A diminutive of the male given name Ivan.
  7. proper noun A surname from English.
  8. noun (informal) A university that is part of the Ivy League.

Synonyms

common ivy English ivy Hedera helix

Etymology

From Middle English ivi, from Old English īfiġ, from Proto-West Germanic *ibig, *ibag, *ibah, from Proto-Germanic *ibahs (compare West Flemish iefte, Low German Eiloov, Ieloof, German Efeu), from Proto-Indo-European *(h₁)ebʰ- (compare Welsh efwr (“black elder”), Ancient Greek ἴφυον (íphuon, “spike-lavender, Lavandula Spica”)).

From ivy, the name of a plant. An ivy branch used to be hung outside an establishment to advertise that it sold alcohol, so it may originally been an occupationational surname for the proprietor of such an establishment.

Ellipsis of Ivy League.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A plant of the genus Hedera (H. helix), common in Europe. Its leaves are evergreen, dark, smooth, shining, and mostly five-pointed; the flowers yellowish and small; the berries black or yellow. The stem clings to walls and trees by rootlike fibers.

Etymology [AS. ifig; akin to OHG. ebawi, ebah, G. epheu.]

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