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

superman

UK /ˈs(j)uːpəmæn/ · US /ˈsupɚmæn/ noun, proper noun

Forms supermen Supermans

  1. noun (chiefly philosophy) An imagined superior type of human being representing a new stage of human development; an übermensch; (loosely), a man of extraordinary powers. “Nietzsche wrote of the coming of the superman.”
  2. noun Someone likened to the comics character Superman; a man of seemingly superhuman powers.
  3. proper noun A fictional comic-book superhero with superhuman strength and speed, X-ray vision, and the ability to fly.
  4. noun (motorcycling, plural Supermans) A stunt in which the rider releases both hands from the handlebars in mid-air.
  5. noun (plural Supermans) An exercise in which one lies prone and lifts one's arms and legs, with only the abdomen touching the ground.
  6. noun (uncountable) A flavor of ice cream that is a mixture of blue moon ice cream, and other ice cream flavors that are colored red and yellow.

Synonyms

Man of Steel Supes demigod Ubermensch acid back breaker battery-acid dose dot Elvis loony toons Lucy in the sky with diamonds pane window pane Zen

Antonyms

netherman

Etymology

A calque of German Übermensch; super- + man. The German word was introduced by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) in his work Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883), and rendered in English as superman by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) in the play Man and Superman (1903) and by Thomas Common (1850–1919) in his 1909 translation of Nietzsche’s work.
The “person of extraordinary powers” sense was reinforced by the DC Comics’ character Superman, who first appeared in Action Comics #1 dated June 1938.

From super- + man. The character, created by Jerry Siegel (1914–1996) and Joe Shuster (1914–1992), first appeared in DC Comics’ Action Comics #1 dated June 1938. The ice-cream flavor is named in reference to the red, yellow and blue of the superhero's costume.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun = Overman, above.

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