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

letter

UK /ˈlɛtə/ · US /ˈlɛtɚ/ noun, verb

Also a form of litter

Forms letters lettering lettered lettre lettor

  1. noun A symbol in an alphabet. “There are twenty-six letters in the English alphabet.”
  2. noun A written or printed communication, usually defined as longer and more formal than a note. (Sometimes specifically one that is on paper.) “I wrote a letter to my sister about my life.”
  3. noun The literal meaning of something, as distinguished from its intended and remoter meaning (the spirit).
  4. noun (in the plural) Literature. “Benjamin Franklin was multiskilled – a scientist, politician and a man of letters.”
  5. noun (law) A division unit of a piece of law marked by a letter of the alphabet. “Letter (b) constitutes an exception to this provision.”
  6. noun (US, uncountable) A size of paper, 8½ in × 11 in (215.9 mm × 279.4 mm).
  7. noun (Canada, uncountable) A size of paper, 215 mm × 280 mm.
  8. noun (printing, dated) A single type; type, collectively; a style of type.
  9. verb (transitive) To print, inscribe, or paint letters on something.
  10. verb (intransitive, US, scholastic) To earn a varsity letter (award).
  11. noun One who lets, or lets out. “the letter of a room”
  12. noun (archaic) One who retards or hinders.

Synonyms

bookstaff ltr short bond paper missive letter of the alphabet alphabetic character varsity letter

Etymology

From Middle English letter, lettre, from Old French letre, from Latin littera (“letter of the alphabet"; in plural, "epistle”). Displaced Old English bōcstæf (literally “book staff”) in sense 1 and ǣrendġewrit (literally “message writing”) in sense 2.

From Middle English letere, equivalent to let + -er.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun One who lets or permits; one who lets anything for hire.
  2. noun One who retards or hinders. [Archaic.]
  3. noun A mark or character used as the representative of a sound, or of an articulation of the human organs of speech; a first element of written language.
  4. noun A written or printed communication; a message expressed in intelligible characters on something adapted to conveyance, as paper, parchment, etc.; an epistle.

Etymology [From Let to permit.]

Etymology [From Let to hinder.]

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

Sanskrit

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

All 204 Sanskrit matches →