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

precious

/ˈpɹɛʃ.əs/ adjective, noun, adverb, proper noun

Forms preciouses pretious

  1. adjective Of high value or worth. “The crown had many precious gemstones. This building work needs site access, and tell the city council that I don't care about a few lorry tyre ruts across their precious grass verge.”
  2. adjective Regarded with love or tenderness. “The way my partner looks at me is just so precious.”
  3. adjective (derogatory, antiphrastic) Treated with too much reverence. “He spent hours painting the eyes of the portrait, which his fellow artists regarded as a bit precious.”
  4. adjective (writing, ironic) Excessively complicated.
  5. adjective (informal, followed by about) Extremely protective or strict (about something). “Writers are often very precious about their work.”
  6. adjective (informal, derogatory) Blasted; damned.
  7. adjective (derogatory) Contrived to be cute or charming.
  8. adjective (colloquial) Thorough; utter. “a precious rascal”
  9. noun Someone (or something) who is loved; a darling.
  10. adverb Very; an intensifier. “There is precious little we can do.”
  11. proper noun A surname transferred from the nickname, originating as a male or female nickname.
  12. proper noun A female given name from English.

Synonyms

dear valuable without price estimable worthy worthly prizable treasurous worth every penny invaluable priceless unpriced unvaluable worth one's weight in gold confounded ever-loving raasclaat 4ucking accursed bally cherished treasured wanted valued cute preciously

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English precious, borrowed from Old French precios (“valuable, costly, precious, beloved, also affected, finical”), from Latin pretiōsus (“of great value, costly, dear, precious”), from pretium (“value, price”); see price.

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Of great price; costly; as, a precious stone. "The precious bane." Milton.
  2. adjective Of great value or worth; very valuable; highly esteemed; dear; beloved; as, precious recollections.

Etymology [OF. precious, precius, precios, F. précieux, L. pretiosus, fr. pretium price, worth, value. See Price.]

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

Sanskrit

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

All 79 Sanskrit matches →