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Cost

Economics
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

The money, effort, or sacrifice required to obtain something. Poets use it to ask what a gain truly demands.

Detailed Definition
Cost measures what must be given up to secure a good, service, choice, or survival itself. A poem may name a price in coins, hours, exhaustion, silence, or blood, widening the term beyond a shopkeeper's calculation. By dwelling on cost, a poet can expose hidden burdens: cheap goods made by underpaid workers, a peaceful home bought through compromise, or a dream pursued at the expense of kinship and rest.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem about factory work can show the cost of cheap clothing through exhausted workers and damaged hands; “The cost of bread was three coins, but the cost of earning them was my father’s sleep” distinguishes price from human cost; A nature poem may describe the cost of draining a wetland as lost birds and flooded homes; A speaker can ask whether the cost of ambition is worth the relationships sacrificed
Additional Notes
Cost includes hidden sacrifice as well as price; ask who pays, what is surrendered, and whether the gain is worth it.
Also Known As
Expense Expenditure
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