This is such a good question. There actually isn't a "standard" phonetic transcription system for English (which is surprising). Dictionary companies come up with their own, which are inevitably similar to each other, with small differences.
Here's the thing: this system is idiosyncratic for English and is NOT the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is usually referred to as (a slightly less hoppy) "IPA."
IPA was invented to represent fixed sounds. This is great when learning languages, but IPA has some problems if you grew up speaking English: some of the symbols can be deeply confusing.
For example: the symbol 'i' (lower-case 'i') stands for the sound /ee/.
One advantage of the "dictionary" phonetic system is that your own accent can be used for any term, since the values of the sounds are not fixed. For example, you may or may not make a distinction in the vowels of the words "pin" and "pen." #AskMW
Here is a link to our pronunciation key WITH AUDIO for the (approximate) sounds. #AskMW
For no reason at all, here is a guide to British noble titles:
‘Prince’ comes from the Latin word that literally means “one who takes the first part.”
It shares its ultimate Latin root with words that denote firstness, like ‘principal’ and ‘prime’ and ‘primary.’
By tradition, only those born into the royal family can use ‘prince’ or ’princess.’
Even though many people refer to ‘Princess Diana,’ the title of ‘princess’ should properly come after her name, since she was not born into the royal family.
“Diana, Princess of Wales”
The title of Prince Philip, was the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’. He was also known as the ‘prince consort’ (husband of a reigning queen).
These peculiar titles with adjectives that follow the nouns are a byproduct of the French-speaking Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066.
Rudolph gets all the love so let’s talk about the names of Santa’s other reindeer.
dasher | noun | one that dashes
dancer | noun | one that dances
prancer | noun | one that walks or moves in a spirited manner
Ok, those three are easy to understand.
Now, we get to ‘Vixen.’ ‘vixen’ is a noun and has 3 senses.
1. a female fox 2. a shrewish, ill-tempered woman 3. a sexually attractive woman
Ummm, what’s going on here, Santa?
comet | noun | a celestial body that appears as a fuzzy head usually surrounding a bright nucleus, that has a usually highly eccentric orbit, that consists primarily of ice and dust, and that often develops one or more long tails when near the sun