Home › Glossary › Letter B

blundered

Verb
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

Made a careless or serious error through confusion, poor judgment, or lack of skill; often implies an unsuccessful attempt or mishap.

Detailed Definition
To blunder is to act clumsily or make a grave error, especially one with bad consequences. In the poem, the word points to the mistaken command or decision behind the charge.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Someone had blundered” uses understatement to expose military error; the captain blundered when he trusted the map; we blundered into grief by calling silence peace; the child blundered through the dark hall, turning fear into accidental comedy
Additional Notes
The verb in “Someone had blundered” is not obscure, but it is a more literary choice than the everyday word “mistaken.”; Found in the poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Also Known As
fumbled stumbled misstepped faltered
Skip to main content