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Arête

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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 narrow, knife-edged mountain ridge formed between glacial valleys.

Detailed Definition
An arête gives a poem a line of peril and exposure: a high ridge where wind, cloud, and stone meet without shelter. Its sharp profile can figure decision, endurance, or the thin division between safety and falling. Poets may set a solitary walker on an arête to heighten scale, silence, and the elemental pressure of alpine weather.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The climber balanced on the arête, where one wrong thought could become a fall”; Use an arête to make a journey feel exposed: “Along the knife-edge arête, dawn divided the valleys”; An arête can symbolize difficult choice: “I walked the arête between leaving and forgiving”; Describe its glacial origin for vivid setting: “Ice had sharpened the mountain into an arête of black stone”
Additional Notes
An arête is often created as glaciers erode opposite sides of a mountain ridge. In poetry, its sharpness can suggest danger, exposure, or endurance. Compare ridge and cirque.
Also Known As
Arete Sharp Ridge
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