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athwart

Adverb
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

Athwart means across, crosswise, or from one side to the other; in poetry, it can suggest obstruction, opposition, or movement cutting across a path.

Detailed Definition
Athwart is an older literary word meaning across or diagonally over something. Here it describes the chasm slanting across the hill, giving the line a vivid, old-fashioned texture.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover” means across or diagonally through the cedar growth; Wordsworth often uses athwart to direct the eye across a landscape; Keats’s “athwart the sky” phrasing gives movement a Romantic elevation; a contemporary nature poem may use athwart sparingly when a shadow, fence, or flight-path cuts across the scene
Additional Notes
This is an archaic literary adverb that many modern readers may not know.; Found in the poem, Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Other Meanings of “athwart”
Also Known As
across against contrary to
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