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Balance Sheet

Economics
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 statement comparing what is owned with what is owed. It can serve as a metaphor for reckoning with gains and losses.

Detailed Definition
A balance sheet records assets, liabilities, and the remaining stake after debts are counted. In poetry, it provides a formal image for moral or emotional accounting: a speaker may measure blessings against injuries, promises against betrayals, or inheritance against obligation. Its orderly columns can heighten the disorder of grief, especially when no calculation can adequately value a body, a landscape, or a lost relationship.
Example
Example in poetry:
A balance sheet can structure a poem that places possessions on one side and debts on the other; “Assets, a small farm and two chairs. Liabilities, the drought and the bank” adapts balance-sheet language for a rural poem; A speaker might make an emotional balance sheet, counting friendships as gains and grief as a burden; A poem about a city can compare public libraries and parks with unpaid loans and damaged roads
Additional Notes
Use a balance sheet metaphorically to list emotional assets, debts, losses, and obligations in a speaker’s life.
Also Known As
Statement of Financial Position
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