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Blue Moon

Time And Calendar
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 additional full moon appearing within a calendar month or season. It signifies rarity and has become a common image for unlikely events.

Detailed Definition
A Blue Moon is popularly understood as the second full moon in a single calendar month, though older definitions refer to an extra full moon within a season. Its rarity has made it a familiar emblem of unusual opportunity, coincidence, or desire that may not return soon. In poetry, a Blue Moon can lend a scene an uncanny brightness or mark a break in ordinary time. The phrase is especially effective when a speaker confronts chance, repetition, or an improbable promise.
Example
Example in poetry:
A blue moon can give a poem a rare, slightly uncanny night in which ordinary promises seem possible; The phrase once in a blue moon can characterize an event so infrequent that the speaker barely trusts it; A poet may contrast the moon's usual pale appearance with the idiom blue moon, noting that the term commonly means an extra full moon in a calendar month; In a reunion poem, lovers meeting beneath a blue moon can make coincidence feel like fate
Additional Notes
A blue moon is commonly the second full moon in one calendar month, though an older definition concerns an extra seasonal full moon. It is a useful image for rarity, surprise, and unlikely promises.
Other Meanings of “Blue Moon”
Also Known As
Once-in-a-Blue-Moon Rare Moon Second Full Moon Uncommon Event
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