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

whale

/ˈweɪl/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms whales whaling whaled

  1. noun Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.
  2. noun (loosely) Any species of Cetacea, including dolphins and porpoises.
  3. noun (figuratively) Something, or someone, that is very large.
  4. noun (figuratively, as "whale of a ___") Something, or someone, that is excellent.
  5. noun (gambling, figuratively) A gambler who routinely wagers large amounts of money.
  6. noun (finance, figuratively, informal) An investor who deals with very large amounts of money.
  7. noun (marketing, figuratively) A person who spends large amounts of money on things that are marketed to them.
  8. noun (figuratively, colloquial, derogatory) An overweight person (usually a woman)
  9. verb (intransitive) To hunt for whales.
  10. verb (slang, transitive) To thrash, to flog, to beat vigorously or soundly.
  11. proper noun A surname.
  12. proper noun A hamlet in Lowther parish, Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, England, previously in Eden district (OS grid ref NY5221).

Synonyms

baleen cetacean high roller giant hulk heavyweight

Etymology

From Middle English whal, whale, from Old English hwæl (“whale”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwal, from Proto-Germanic *hwalaz (“whale”) (compare German Wal, Swedish val, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hval, Norwegian Nynorsk kval; compare also Dutch walvis, West Frisian walfisk, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kʷálos (“sheatfish”) (compare German Wels, Latin squalus (“big sea fish”), Old Prussian kalis, Ancient Greek ἄσπαλος (áspalos), Avestan 𐬐𐬀𐬭𐬀 (kara, “kind of fish”)).

Uncertain. Perhaps a variant of wale influenced by whack, whap, etc.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun Any aquatic mammal of the order Cetacea, especially any one of the large species, some of which become nearly one hundred feet long.

Etymology [OE. whal, AS. hwæl; akin to D. walvisch, G. wal, walfisch, OHG. wal, Icel. hvalr, Dan. & Sw. hval, hvalfisk. Cf. Narwhal, Walrus.]

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

Sanskrit

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