Home › Glossary › Letter B

brazen

Adjective
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

Brazen literally means made of brass or bronze; figuratively, it describes a bold, shameless, or defiantly conspicuous manner, often carrying a critical tone in poetry.

Detailed Definition
In older literary English, brazen can mean literally made of brass, not just bold or shameless. Here it describes the “giant of Greek fame,” giving the statue a hard, metallic grandeur.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame” contrasts a bronze conqueror with another statue; brazen can mean made of brass or bronze, bright and metallic; a brazen sun beats on the pavement with glaring force; her brazen refusal is shameless, defiant, and deliberately public
Additional Notes
In this line, “brazen” is a literary adjective with an older metal-based sense that many modern readers may not know immediately.; Found in the poem, The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
Also Known As
bold brash audacious unrepentant
Skip to main content