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Curtain

Household Objects
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 hanging piece of cloth used to cover a window, doorway, or bed. It can symbolize concealment, privacy, revelation, or theatrical display.

Detailed Definition
A curtain is fabric suspended to block light, divide space, decorate a room, or shield an interior from outside view. Poets frequently use curtains as boundaries between public and private life, waking and dreaming, or knowledge and concealment. A drawn curtain may protect intimacy, while one lifted by wind can reveal a hidden room or an unexpected landscape. Because curtains open and close like a stage, they also offer a natural image for performance, endings, and moments of disclosure.
Example
Example in poetry:
“She drew the curtain against the rain” can mark a desire for shelter and privacy; In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” T. S. Eliot’s evening is compared to a patient “etherised upon a table,” while curtains and interiors elsewhere in modern poetry often frame isolation and observation; “The curtain lifted, and the moon entered the room” gives weather or moonlight an active role; A curtain can symbolize concealment in “Behind the curtain, the portrait waited in dust”
Additional Notes
Curtains can hide or reveal; they also connect domestic privacy with the opening and closing of a theatrical scene.
Other Meanings of “Curtain”
Also Known As
Drape Drapery
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