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

“scrabbled” is a form of

scrabble

/ˈskɹæbəl/ verb, noun, proper noun

Forms scrabbles scrabbling scrabbled

  1. verb (intransitive) To scrape or scratch powerfully with hands or claws.
  2. verb (transitive) To gather hastily.
  3. verb (intransitive) To move with difficulty by making rapid movements back and forth with the hands or paws. “She was on her hands and knees scrabbling in the mud, looking for her missing wedding ring.”
  4. verb (intransitive) To scribble.
  5. verb (transitive) To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble on.
  6. noun A scramble.
  7. proper noun A board game in which players draw letter tiles and take turns to make interlocking words like a crossword, scoring points according to the letters played and their positions on the board.

Synonyms

scramble scribble doodle grope for

Etymology

From Middle Dutch schrabbelen, frequentative of schrabben (“to scrape”), equivalent to scrab + -le. More at scrape.

A brand name, from the verb scrabble, James Brunot's rebranding (1948) of Alfred Butts's game Criss-Crosswords (1938).

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To scrape, paw, or scratch with the hands; to proceed by clawing with the hands and feet; to scramble; as, to scrabble up a cliff or a tree.
  2. verb To make irregular, crooked, or unmeaning marks; to scribble; to scrawl.
  3. verb To mark with irregular lines or letters; to scribble; as, to scrabble paper.
  4. noun The act of scrabbing; a moving upon the hands and knees; a scramble; also, a scribble.

Etymology [Freq. of scrape. Cf. Scramble, Scrawl, v. t.]

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