Home › Glossary › Letter B

Back

Anatomy
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

The rear surface of the torso. It can signify departure, hidden feeling, endurance, or the weight a person bears.

Detailed Definition
A back is often seen when a face is unavailable, so it can communicate silence, withdrawal, or a person moving away. Poetry may describe a bowed back under labor, a scarred back as evidence of suffering, or a straight back as a sign of pride. Because the back cannot easily see itself, it also suggests what is concealed from the self. It can make an emotional scene indirect, allowing posture to speak where confession does not.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Whitman's "Song of Myself," the body is celebrated as a vast field of experience, and the back can suggest both labor and strength; "The farmer's back was a dark hill under the shirt" turns the back into landscape; "She turned her back on the burning house" uses the phrase literally and symbolically to show refusal; "Rain wrote cold signatures down his back" makes the back a surface upon which weather acts
Additional Notes
Because it is unseen by the speaker, the back can imply secrecy, departure, vulnerability, or burdens silently endured.
Also Known As
Dorsum Backside Rear
Skip to main content