Home › Glossary › Letter B

buffalo

Fauna
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 buffalo is a large, horned bovine, notably the African buffalo or the American bison (often called buffalo), symbolizing raw power, stubbornness, and the wild, thundering herds of the old frontier.

Detailed Definition
The buffalo carries the weight of the American plains and the tragedy of near-extinction, making it a poetic symbol of lost abundance and the resilience of survivors. Its massive, curved horns and unpredictable temper represent the formidable resistance of the wild to human control. Poets use the buffalo to evoke the great grasslands, the native peoples who lived alongside it, and the relentless march of progress that decimated its numbers, often casting it as a ghostly, thundering presence that haunts the memory of the continent.
Example
Example in poetry:
An oral poem from Africa salutes the buffalo: "Buffalo, ancient beast, when you hear roaring and there is no rain, that is the buffalo!".; Another poem describes its speed and strength: "The buffalo roars as loud as a rainstorm".; The buffalo can symbolize the American plains, as in "Deeply the buffalo trod it Beating it barren as brass".; Its role in Native American culture is noted in "Humanity is an Indian boy born from a buffalo".; The animal's thundering herds evoke the lost frontier.
Additional Notes
The buffalo holds an almost sacred place in Native American poetry and song, often appearing as a provider, a symbol of abundance, and a figure of spiritual power. The African buffalo, with its unpredictable temper and massive horns, serves a different poetic function—representing the formidable resistance of the wild and the danger of the hunt. In American poetry, the buffalo is inseparable from the history of the Great Plains, the tragedy of near-extinction, and the resilience of Indigenous cultures. Poets frequently use the thundering herd as an image of lost majesty and the bones of the buffalo as a haunting reminder of ecological and cultural genocide. When using this term, acknowledge its complex cultural baggage and the distinction between the American bison and the African buffalo.
Also Known As
Cape buffalo African buffalo
Skip to main content