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

racket

/ˈɹækɪt/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms rackets racketing racketed racquet racketeering

  1. noun (countable, sports) An implement with a handle connected to a round frame strung with wire, sinew, or plastic cords, and used to hit a ball, such as in tennis or a shuttlecock in badminton. “He bought a new tennis racket two days ago.”
  2. noun (Canada) A snowshoe formed of cords stretched across a long and narrow frame of light wood.
  3. noun A broad wooden shoe or patten for a man or horse, to allow walking on marshy or soft ground.
  4. verb To strike with, or as if with, a racket.
  5. noun A loud noise. “Power tools work quickly, but they sure make a racket.”
  6. noun An illegal scheme for profit; a fraud or swindle; or both coinstantiated. “prostitution and gambling controlled by rackets”
  7. noun (informal) Any industry or enterprise.
  8. noun (dated, slang) A carouse; any reckless dissipation.
  9. noun (dated, slang) Something taking place considered as exciting, trying, unusual, etc. or as an ordeal.
  10. verb (intransitive) To make a clattering noise.
  11. verb (intransitive, dated) To be dissipated; to carouse.
  12. proper noun (computer languages) A general-purpose, multiparadigm programming language descended from Scheme.

Synonyms

bat paddle racquet din noise ruckus row deception imposition hype deceit dupery fiddle fetch hocus-pocus jugglery legerdemain list mislead prestidigitation fraudulent scheme illegitimate enterprise dissonance revel make whoopie make merry make happy whoop it up jollify wassail

Etymology

From Middle English raket, of uncertain origin.
Possibly cognate with Middle French rachette, requette (“palm of the hand”). From Arabic رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد (rāḥat al-yad, “palm of the hand”).
Alternatively, the term might be derived from Dutch raketsen instead, from Middle French rachasser (“to strike (the ball) back”).

Attested since the 1500s, of unclear origin; possibly a metathesis of the dialectal term rattick (“to shake, rattle”).

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun A thin strip of wood, having the ends brought together, forming a somewhat elliptical hoop, across which a network of catgut or cord is stretched. It is furnished with a handle, and is used for catching or striking a ball in tennis and similar games.
  2. noun A variety of the game of tennis played with peculiar long-handled rackets; --chiefly in the plural. Chaucer.
  3. verb To strike with, or as with, a racket.
  4. noun confused, clattering noise; din; noisy talk or sport.

Etymology [F. raquette; cf. Sp. raquets, It. racchetta, which is perhaps for retichetta, and fr. L. rete a net (cf. Reticule); or perh. from the Arabic; cf. Ar. raha the palm of the hand (used at first to strike the ball), and OF. rachette, rasquette, carpus, tarsus.]

Etymology [Gael. racaid a noise, disturbance.]

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