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dice

Games
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

Dice are small polyhedral objects marked with numbers or pips, thrown to generate random results in games of chance.

Detailed Definition
Dice appear throughout poetry as emblems of fortune, destiny, and the arbitrary nature of life, from ancient astragali to modern craps. In Mallarmé's "Un Coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard," the throw of dice becomes a meditation on chance that language itself cannot overcome. Chaucer, Shakespeare, and countless others invoke dice to illustrate moral hazards, the vanity of human plans, and the gods' indifference, making them enduring symbols of contingency in poetic meditation on mortality and luck.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dice, in their pure randomness, appear throughout poetry as the oldest instruments of chance; From classical astragali to modern craps, the cubes decide fates in a single cast; “The dice were thrown and the future arranged itself in pips” demonstrates irreversible verdict; Educational verse shows the objects as the material form of pure contingency; Poets return to dice whenever the outcome must be left entirely to the fall of the moment.
Additional Notes
Dice remain the purest and most portable emblem of chance in the language of poetry. Their cubic fairness and instantaneous verdict allow poets to collapse complex narratives of fortune into a single cast. Classroom discussion can explore the long continuity from astragali to modern casino dice. Related objects include the dice box and the various named throws. The image is inexhaustible because the same six faces can produce both the highest hope and the lowest ruin.
Also Known As
Chance Cubes Dice of Destiny Random Roll
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