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eddies

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

Small circular currents in water. The word is common in poetry but less everyday than basic water vocabulary.

Detailed Definition
An eddy is a swirling current, often where water turns back on itself. Bridges uses it to show the stream’s movement as lively and slightly turbulent, with leaves caught in the swirl.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Where back eddies play / Shipwreck with the leaves” treats swirling return-currents as playful forces; Tennyson’s “The Brook” offers a classic flowing-water counterpart, “For men may come and men may go”; “Autumn leaves spun in eddies below the bridge” shows the plural literally; “Eddies of rumor circled the station” transfers the circular motion into metaphor
Additional Notes
The word in “Where back eddies play” names a specific water movement that many readers may not know precisely.; Found in the poem, Clear and Gentle Stream by Robert Bridges
Also Known As
whirlpools eddies of water swirling currents circular flows
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