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Bureau

Furnishings
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 chest of drawers or a writing desk with storage compartments. Its meaning varies by region and period.

Detailed Definition
A bureau may refer to a chest of drawers or to a writing desk equipped with drawers, shelves, and a sloping lid. In literary description, it can anchor a bedroom, study, or boardinghouse room with practical domestic detail. A poem may make the bureau a keeper of receipts, hair ribbons, maps, or private manuscripts, allowing its ordered drawers to contrast with emotional disorder.
Example
Example in poetry:
The bureau drawers opened with the dusty breath of childhood; In a domestic poem, a bureau can hold clothing that represents different stages of a speaker's life; “From the bureau, she lifted the blue dress and with it the summer she had buried”; A poet can use a bureau mirror to contrast outward appearance with private feeling
Additional Notes
Meaning changes by region: it may mean a desk, chest of drawers, or office. In poetry, context clarifies whether storage or writing is emphasized.
Also Known As
Writing Desk Secretary Desk Chest of Drawers Dresser
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