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Brother

Kinship
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 male sibling. The figure may suggest shared upbringing, loyalty, competition, or loss.

Detailed Definition
In poetry, a brother can function as a witness to the speaker’s childhood and family history. He may be a companion, protector, rival, absent relative, or subject of elegy. Poems often use the brother’s habits, voice, or physical resemblance to reveal a family’s emotional patterns. The relationship can explore affection beneath conflict, the effects of social expectations on boys and men, and the persistence of sibling bonds across distance or death.
Example
Example in poetry:
Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” centers on the death of the speaker’s younger brother; A speaker might write, “My brother taught me how to whistle through grief,” combining sibling memory and emotion; In Gwendolyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool,” the group voice can suggest brotherhood among young men without using biological kinship; A poem can show rivalry and affection with “My brother and I divided the last orange like a country”
Additional Notes
Brother often evokes loyalty, competition, shared upbringing, or mourning. In some poems, brotherhood may extend beyond biological family to friendship or community.
Also Known As
Bro friar
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