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

patchwork

noun, verb

Forms patchworks patchworking patchworked

  1. noun A work, such as a blanket, composed of many different colors and shapes, sewn together to make an interesting whole.
  2. noun (figurative) Any kind of creation that makes use of many different aspects to create one whole piece. “Bill took all of his poetry and put it together in a folder. It made up a patchwork of his life.”
  3. noun (derogatory) A state of regulations whose constituents have an opaque scope of application because of their questionable delimitation with regard to each other.
  4. verb (transitive) To create a patchwork from pieces of fabric.
  5. verb (transitive) To assemble from a variety of sources; to cobble together.

Synonyms

hodgepodge jumble patchwork quilt

Etymology

From patch + work.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Work composed of pieces sewed together, esp. pieces of various colors and figures; hence, anything put together of incongruous or ill-adapted parts; something irregularly clumsily composed; a thing putched up. Swift.

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