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

spy

/spaɪ/ noun, verb

Forms spies spying spied

  1. noun A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage).
  2. noun (American football) A defensive player assigned to cover an offensive backfield player man-to-man when they are expected to engage in a running play, but the offensive player does not run with the ball immediately.
  3. verb (intransitive) To act as a spy. “During the Cold War, Russia and America would each spy on each other for recon.”
  4. verb (transitive) To spot; to catch sight of; to espy. “I think I can spy that hot guy coming over here.”
  5. verb (intransitive) To search narrowly; to scrutinize.
  6. verb (transitive) To explore; to see; to view; inspect and examine secretly, as a country.

Synonyms

espy intelligencer espial ghost secret agent spook undie undercover agent descry spot stag snoop sleuth sight

Etymology

From Middle English spien, aphetic variant of earlier espien (“to espy”), from Old French espier (“to spy”), from Frankish *spehōn (“to spy”), from Proto-Germanic *spehōną (“to see, look”), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look”). Akin to German spähen (“to spy”), Dutch spieden (“to spy”).
The noun displaced native Old English sċēawere (literally “watcher”), which was also the word for "mirror." In this sense, the verb displaced Old English sċēawian, which was also the word for "to watch" and became the Modern English word show.
Distant cognate vie PIE with Latin speculātor, Ancient Greek κατάσκοπος (katáskopos).
Compare typologically Russian согляда́тай (sogljadátaj) (akin to гляде́ть (gljadétʹ)).

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To gain sight of; to discover at a distance, or in a state of concealment; to espy; to see. One in reading, skipped over all sentences where he spied a note of admiration. Swift.
  2. verb To discover by close search or examination.
  3. verb To search narrowly; to scrutinize.
  4. noun One who keeps a constant watch of the conduct of others. "These wretched spies of wit." Dryden.

Etymology [OE. spien, espien, OF. espier, F. épier, OHG. speh, G. spähen; akin to L. specere to see, Skr. spa(Espy, v.t., Aspect, Auspice, Circumspect, Conspicuouc, Despise, Frontispiece, Inspect, Prospect, Respite, Scope, Scecimen, Spectacle, Specter, Speculate, Spice, Spite, Suspicion.]

Etymology [See Spy, v., and cf. Espy, n.]

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

Sanskrit

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

All 44 Sanskrit matches →