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

“twigs” is a form of

twig

/twɪɡ/ noun, verb

Forms twigs twigging twigged

  1. noun A small thin branch of a tree or bush. “They used twigs and leaves as a base to start the fire.”
  2. noun (bodybuilding, slang) Somebody, or one of their body parts, not looking developed.
  3. verb (transitive) To beat with twigs.
  4. verb (colloquial, regional) To realise something; to catch on; to recognize someone or something. “He hasn't twigged that we're planning a surprise party for him.”
  5. verb (intransitive) To be realized and understood; to click.
  6. verb To understand the meaning of (a person); to comprehend. “Do you twig me?”
  7. verb To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover.
  8. verb (obsolete, Scotland) To pull
  9. verb To twitch
  10. verb To tweak

Synonyms

tillow clock fathom figure out grasp ken work out check out peep spy on surveil get it notice branchlet sprig catch on get wise get onto tumble latch on cotton on

Etymology

From Middle English twig, twyg, twigge, twygge, from Old English twigg, twicg, from Proto-West Germanic *twiggu (“small twig, shoot”), apparently a diminutive of Proto-West Germanic *twig (“branch, twig”) (whence also Old English twiġ and twiġa), from Proto-Germanic *twīgą, from Proto-Indo-European *dwigʰom, from *dwóh₁. More at two.
Cognate with North Frisian twiich, twiig (“twig”), Saterland Frisian Twiech (“branch, twig”), West Frisian twiich (“twig”), Dutch twijg (“twig”), German Zweig (“branch, twig; section”), German Low German Twieg (“branch, twig”), Luxembourgish Zwäig (“twig”), Yiddish צווײַג (tsvayg, “branch”); also Old Church Slavonic двигъ (dvigŭ, “branch”), Albanian degë (“branch”).

Possibly from Irish and Scottish Gaelic tuig (“to understand”).

Compare tweak.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To twitch; to pull; to tweak. [Obs. or Scot.]
  2. verb To understand the meaning of; to comprehend; as, do you twig me [Colloq.] Marryat.
  3. verb To observe slyly; also, to perceive; to discover. "Now twig him; now mind him." Foote.
  4. noun A small shoot or branch of a tree or other plant, of no definite length or size.

Etymology [Cf. Tweak.]

Etymology [Gael. tuig, or Ir. tuigim I understand.]

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

Sanskrit

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

All 12 Sanskrit matches →