Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iː	see	ɪ	sit	e / ɛ	bed	æ	cat
ɑː	father	ɒ	hot (UK)	ɔː	law	ʊ	put
uː	too	ʌ	cup	ɜː	bird	ə	about
eɪ	day	aɪ	my	ɔɪ	boy	aʊ	now
əʊ / oʊ	go (UK / US)	ɪə	near	eə	hair	ʊə	tour

Consonants that look unusual

θ	thin	ð	this	ʃ	she	ʒ	measure
tʃ	church	dʒ	judge	ŋ	sing	j	yes

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

nectar

UK /ˈnɛk.tə/ · US /ˈnɛk.təɹ/ noun, verb

Forms nectars nectaring nectared

noun (chiefly mythology) The drink of the gods.
noun (by extension) Any delicious drink, now especially a type of sweetened fruit juice.
noun (botany) The sweet liquid secreted by flowers to attract pollinating insects and birds.
verb (intransitive) To feed on nectar. “Nectaring is one of butterflies' favourite activities.”

Synonyms

ambrosia

Etymology

From Latin nectar, from Ancient Greek νέκταρ (néktar, “nourishment of the gods”), from Proto-Indo-European *neḱ- (“perish, disappear”) + *-tr̥h₂ (“overcoming”), from *terh₂- (“to overcome, pass through, cross over”).

Webster’s 1913

noun The drink of the gods (as ambrosia was their food); hence, any delicious or inspiring beverage.
noun A sweetish secretion of blossoms from which bees make honey.

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

Sanskrit

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

अमृतक amṛtaka the nectar of immortality.
सबस् sabas water, heavenly food, nectar,
अमृताय amṛtāya amṛtāyate, -yitum, to be like nectar.
पीयूष pīyūṣa pīyūṣati, pīyūṣitum, to become or turn into nectar.
मरन्द maranda or marandaka, as, m. ( = makaranda ), the juice or nectar of flowers.
स्त्येन styena nectar ( = a-mṛta ); a thief (in this sense probably for stena, q.v.).
पेत्व petva a ram, sheep (Vedic); a small part; ( am ), n. nectar, Amṛta; ghee or clarified butter.
प्राशिन् prāśin (at the end of a comp.) eating, feeding upon; amṛta-prāśin, ī, m. eating nectar, a god.

All 94 Sanskrit matches →