cuneate

The trouble with cuneate starts at the first letter and is over by the third. A word that opens with the sound kyoo is written with a c and a u, and nothing in the sound says so.

Wedge-shaped. Used above all of a leaf base whose two sides run in straight lines down to the stalk, as in many willowherbs and rock roses.

Latin cuneus, a wedge, gives cuneatus. The same root gives cuneiform, the wedge-shaped writing pressed into clay. English adds a y sound in front of a long u after most consonants, which is why cube, cure and cucumber all say kyoo. Cuneate follows the pattern and gets no credit for it, because the y is nowhere on the page.