Home › Glossary › Letter A

Affix

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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 morpheme attached to a word stem to create new meaning in poetry

Detailed Definition
An affix is a morpheme added to a word stem to modify its meaning or grammatical function, including prefixes (e.g., "un-") and suffixes (e.g., "-ness"); in poetic diction, affixes can alter tone, create neologisms, or enhance rhythmic texture, as seen in Shakespeare’s inventive wordplay or Hopkins’s compound coinages.
Example
Example in poetry:
Affix: In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, the word “untrimmed” uses the prefix “un-” as an affix to negate the verb “trimmed,” altering its meaning within the poetic line.
Additional Notes
Affix: A morpheme added to a word stem (prefix, suffix, infix) to alter meaning or grammatical function; poets may use affixes creatively for neologisms or rhythmic effects—e.g., “un-” in “unbeing” to evoke negation or absence.
Also Known As
Morpheme Prefix Suffix Word element
Skip to main content