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Adynaton

Device
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 rhetorical hyperbole asserting the impossibility of something to emphasize extremity, often invoking cosmic or natural impossibilities.

Detailed Definition
Adynaton is a figure of speech that asserts something so improbable it is effectively impossible, often for emphatic or ironic effect; derived from Greek, it appears in biblical and classical poetry (e.g., “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle”) to underscore divine power or human limitation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Adynaton in biblical Song of Songs: “If a man would give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly despised”; John Donne’s “The Sun Rising”: “She’s all states, and all princes, I”; adynaton in Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”: “I never could talk to you”; adynaton uses impossible comparisons to express extremity
Additional Notes
Alternative spelling of adynaton. Same meaning: rhetorical impossibility. Both spellings acceptable—scholarly preference varies. Greek origin (impossible thing).
Other Meanings of “Adynaton”
Also Known As
impossibilia extreme hyperbole
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