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chasmal

Adjective
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

Chasmal means resembling a chasm: deep, cleft, rugged, or abyss-like. It often describes landscapes or figuratively conveys vast separation, darkness, or emotional depth.

Detailed Definition
The adjective describes Beeny’s dramatic cliff landscape as having the depth and abruptness of a chasm. Hardy repeats it when recalling the place in both the past and present.
Example
Example in poetry:
“What if still in chasmal beauty looms that wild weird western shore” makes beauty vast and abyss-like; Chasmal cliffs divide the sea from the sky; The city’s chasmal silence opens after the sirens; A chasmal ravine lets darkness become sublime
Additional Notes
“Chasmal” is an uncommon descriptive adjective derived from “chasm,” as shown in the quoted descriptions of Beeny and the shore.; Found in the poem, Beeny Cliff by Thomas Hardy
Also Known As
cavernous abyssal chasmic
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