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Adage

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A pithy, traditional saying expressing a general truth or piece of folk wisdom, often used for rhetorical or thematic emphasis.

Detailed Definition
A traditional saying or proverb expressing common wisdom or observation, often incorporated into poetry for moral weight or cultural resonance. Adages provide ready-made wisdom that poets can affirm, question, or subvert. Their proverbial authority and concise phrasing make them effective for establishing themes or providing memorable conclusions. Poets may treat adages reverently, using them to anchor poems in communal wisdom, or ironically, undermining their conventional certainty to explore complexity.
Example
Example in poetry:
“A stitch in time saves nine” appears in Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack”; “The early bird catches the worm” structures moral lessons in didactic poetry; In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Coleridge embeds adages like “He prayeth best, who loveth best”; Modern poets like Billy Collins ironically repurpose adages to question inherited wisdom; Adages in African oral poetry often open performances to establish communal values.
Additional Notes
An adage in poetry is a concise, memorable saying expressing folk wisdom; when used poetically, it can anchor a theme or provide ironic contrast to the poem’s situation.
Also Known As
Proverb Maxim Aphorism Adagio
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