Home › Glossary › Letter D

deeps

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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

Deep places, especially the sea or the depths of space or the earth.

Detailed Definition
Blake uses "deeps" in an elevated, poetic sense to mean vast depths or abysses. The word is less common in modern everyday English than the singular "deep," so it can feel archaic or literary here.
Example
Example in poetry:
Blake asks, “In what distant deeps or skies / Burnt the fire of thine eyes?” using deeps for profound depths; The plural noun suggests vast, mysterious spaces, especially sea, sky, or the mind; “The ocean’s deeps withheld the wreck” gives the word an ominous grandeur; A contemporary space poem may speak of “the deeps between galaxies”
Additional Notes
The plural form "deeps" in this line is a literary usage that many modern readers may not immediately recognize.; Found in the poem, The Tyger by William Blake
Also Known As
depths abysses profoundness
Skip to main content