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churchyard

Noun
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 burial ground beside or surrounding a church, often evoking death, memory, faith, ancestry, and quiet reflection in verse.

Detailed Definition
A churchyard is the burial ground around a church. The word is not obscure, but it is more specific than the everyday word “graveyard” and helps locate the poem’s mournful setting. It appears in a distinctly old-fashioned rural or religious context here.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Where children spell, athwart the churchyard gate” sets learning beside graves and memory; Yew trees darken the churchyard at noon; In the churchyard, names weather into unreadable stone; A child photographs angels in a city churchyard
Additional Notes
Churchyard is a somewhat specialized burial-ground term in the quoted line, though still fairly understandable.; Found in the poem, The Maid’s Lament by Walter Savage Landor
Also Known As
graveyard cemetery resting place burial ground
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