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• present participles dropping a final silent
e and adding -ing to the stem, e.g.,
change
→
changing
;
dance
→
dancing
Other forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:
• verbs that inflect by doubling a consonant, e.g.,
bat
→
batted
,
batting
• verbs ending in -
y that inflect by changing -y to -i, e.g.,
try
→
tries
,
tried
• verbs in which past tense and past participle do not follow the regular -
ed
pattern, e.g.,
feel
→
past and past participle
felt
;
awake
→
past
awoke
; past
participle
awoken
• present participles that add -
ing but retain a final e (in order to make clear that
the pronunciation of
g remains soft), e.g.,
singe
→
singeing
Nouns
Plurals formed by adding -
s (or -es when they end in -s, -x, -z, -sh, or soft -ch) are
regarded as regular and are not shown, e.g.,
dog
→
dogs
;
lunch
→
lunches
Other plural forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:
• nouns ending in -
i or -o, e.g.,
agouti
→
agoutis
;
albino
→
albinos
• nouns ending in -
a, -um, or -us that are or appear to be Latinate forms, e.g.,
alumna
→
alumnae
;
spectrum
→
spectra
;
alveolus
→
alveoli
• nouns ending in -
y, e.g.,
fly
→
flies
;
party
→
parties
• nouns with more than one plural form, e.g.,
crux
→
cruxes
or
cruces
;
money
→
moneys
or
monies
• nouns with plurals showing a change in the stem, e.g.,
foot
→
feet
;
louse
→
lice
• nouns with plurals unchanged from the singular form, e.g.,
sheep
→
sheep
;
bonsai
→
bonsai
Adjectives
The following forms for comparative and superlative are regarded as regular and
are not shown in the dictionary:
• words of one syllable adding -
er and -est, e.g.,
great
→
greater
,
greatest
• words of one syllable ending in silent
e, which drop the -e and add -er and -est,
e.g.,
brave
→
braver
,
bravest
• words that form the comparative and superlative by adding “more” and “most”;
e.g.,
beautiful
→
more beautiful
,
most beautiful
Other forms are given in the dictionary, notably for:
• adjectives that form the comparative and superlative by doubling a final
consonant, e.g.,
hot
→
hotter
,
hottest
• two-syllable adjectives that form the comparative and superlative with -
er and -
est (typically adjectives ending in -y and their negative forms), e.g.,
happy
→
happier
,
happiest
;
unhappy
→
unhappier
,
unhappiest
Syllabification
In the
New Oxford American Dictionary, syllable breaks are shown for main entries
and derivatives. Although all possible breaks are shown, there are some conven-
tions that govern how writers break words at the ends of lines. Guidelines include:
• Avoid a break that will leave one letter and a hyphen at the end of the line or one
letter (or one letter and a punctuation mark such as a period) at the beginning of
a line.
• Avoid breaking a word that is already hyphenated except at that hyphen (e.g.,
self-affirmation; leather-bound).
• Never break proper names.
• Avoid breaking abbreviations.
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