Home › Glossary › Letter B

Broom

Household Objects
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

A long-handled brush used for sweeping floors. It can symbolize labor, cleansing, secrecy, or humble domestic life.

Detailed Definition
A broom is a household tool made from bound twigs, straw, or bristles attached to a handle, used to gather dust and debris. Poets often employ it as an emblem of repetitive work, modest care, or the attempt to restore order after disorder. Its sweeping motion can resemble erasure, ritual purification, or the passage of time, while its associations with folklore may bring hints of magic, exile, or an unnoticed life of service.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Robert Frost’s “After Apple-Picking,” the speaker’s “ladder’s sticking through a tree” shows how an ordinary tool can carry larger meaning, much as a broom can suggest labor or change; “She swept the kitchen with a broom of twigs” makes a rural scene concrete; A broom can become symbolic in “He broomed the ashes from the doorstep,” suggesting an attempt to remove grief; “The broom leaned behind the door like a tired companion” uses personification
Additional Notes
A broom may represent ordinary labor, ritual cleansing, or the attempt to sweep away memory, guilt, or disorder.
Other Meanings of “Broom”
Also Known As
Besom
Skip to main content