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audit

Noun
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

An audit is a formal, systematic examination of financial accounts, records, or procedures to check their accuracy, legality, and proper management.

Detailed Definition
An audit is a formal review of financial records to check accuracy and compliance. The poem uses it metaphorically for death as a final accounting of how life was spent.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Now death its final audit brings” treats life as an account subjected to final reckoning; John Donne’s holy sonnets repeatedly imagine death before divine judgment; Edward Taylor’s devotional poetry uses commercial and accounting metaphors for spiritual debt; in a modern elegy, an audit may be secular, inventorying possessions, memories, or debts left behind
Additional Notes
The phrase "final audit" uses a business/accounting term that is specialized enough that some readers may pause over it.; Found in the poem, Twenty-five thousand days by Richard
Also Known As
examination review assessment inspection
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