. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
you have here. The definition of the word
will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Welcome!
You might get a tad bit more info about me on my en.Wikipedia user page.
I've contributed a few Hungarian translations and Hungarian words here.
Subpages
User:B jonas/French pronunciation
Some useful links
B jonas 13:57, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
Some notes on English usage
Do not confuse these pairs of English words
- draught or draft
- /drɑ:ft/ current of air
- drought
- /draʊt/ period of dryness
- appeal
- attract; urge
- appal or appall
- frighten or horrify
- coach
- /kəʊtʃ/ a bus, train wagon, or closed horse carriage; or a sports trainer
- couch
- /kaʊtʃ/ sofa
- stenography
- shorthand, fast form of handwriting
- steganography
- hiding messages
- deprecate
- /ˈdɛprɪkeɪt/ talk disapprovingly; also used instead of depreciate sometimes
- depreciate
- /dɪˈpriːʃɪeɪt/ become less valuable
- dilate
- /daɪˈleɪt, dɪˈleɪt/ expand or widen (esp. a gap)
- dilute
- /daɪˈluːt, dɪˈluːt/ make (a solution) less dense
- delate
- /dɪˈleɪt/ report a person for their rule breaking
- delayed
- /dɪˈleɪd/ past of delay, push to later time
- delete
- /dɪˈliːt/ remove
- delight
- /dɪˈlaɪt/ happyness
- delude
- /dɪˈluːd/ convince about falsehoods
- continuous
- /kənˈtɪnjʊəs/ without interruption
- contiguous
- /kənˈtɪgjʊəs/ sharing a border, or without gaps
- discrete
- made of separate parts, not continuous
- discreet
- respecting privacy
- specter or spectre
- ghost
- scepter or sceptre
- symbolic staff that rulers hold
Some words of which I need to learn the spelling
(There are too many words of which I need to learn the pronunciation that I don't even bother to start to list them.)
- weird (as a workaround, learn to just use curious or strange in most cases)
- hygiene, etymology, mysterious, Odyssey, myopia, hibernate
- carbohydrate
- appearance, maintenance, existence
- appropriate, privilege, obsolete
- paid, heard
- homogeneous, jealous
- autumn
Links on particular points of English usage
Silent initial consonants
If a word starts with any of the following combination of consonants, the first consonant is almost always silent in English.
- wr
- write, wrong, wrist, wrap, wreck, wrest, wrestle, wriggle, wrinkle, wrath, wraith, wreath, wrangle, wren, wright, wrought, wring, writ, writhe, wry.
- kn
- know, knife, knock, knee, knight, knob, knot, knit, knack, knout, knuckle, knave.
- ps
- psychology (and lots of related words), psalm, pseudo, psychic, psionics.
- pt
- pterodactyl.
- gn
- gnaw, gnash, gnome, gnu, gnat.
- pn
- pneumatic.
- mn
- mnemonic.
- chth
- chthonic.
- phth
- phthisis
- bd
- bdellium.
Pronounciation of -ough in English
List of such words: although borough bough breakthrough cough dough enough furlough hough Marlborough McCullough rough Scarborough slough sough sourdough thorough though through tough trough. – b_jonas 11:42, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
All from wiktionary as of 2008-06-13:
-borough
alpine-chough
although
borough
bough
chough
cough
dough
eavestrough
enough
furlough
Hiccough
hiccough
Hillsborough
hough
Loughborough
lough
Marlborough
Middlesbrough
Myerscough
Peterborough
Plough
plough
Rough
rough
Scarborough
Slough
slough
snowplough
sough
sourdough
thirdborough
Thorough
thorough
though
tough
trough
turlough
Conrad.Irwin 11:39, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
Sorted list inplace for easier use of paper dict. – b_jonas 11:45, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
Pron source below: Paul Procter (editor), Dictionary of Contemporary English, A Langenscheidt-Longman Dictionary. Longman Group Ltd., 1985, 7th printing.
- /-oʊ/ or /-ə/
- borough (BrE) /ˈbʌrə/, (AmE) /ˈbʌrəʊ/
- thorough (BrE) /ˈθʌrə/ or (BrE or AmE) /ˈθʌrəʊ/
- /-ɒf/
- cough (BrE) /kɒf/, (AmE) /kɔf/
- trough (BrE) /trɒf/ or (AmE) /trɔf/
English words ending in é
These are usually confusing when written with "e" instead of "é".
- cliché, clichéd, melee (close combat), resumé, epee, maté, saké, rothé, café, exposé, animé
– b_jonas
An old project of mine on Wiktionary
My current project (stalled for a long time now) here is to add most two-letter Hungarian words to wiktionary. I exclude some interjections, word parts that are not a complete word, interjections and other meaningless words, and words I forget. I've done the words starting with a–í, so I now have to continue from j. About half of the words already had a suitable entry which makes the project much easier.