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empyreal

Diction
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

Belonging to the highest part of the heavens; in poetry, describing something of pure, ethereal light, often in contrast to the mundane, physical world below.

Detailed Definition
In older literary English, empyreal often refers to the highest, purest heaven or a realm of fire and light. Here it gives Life a cosmic, elevated setting in the phrase about the “vast ocean of empyreal flame.”
Example
Example in poetry:
“The vast ocean of empyreal flame” invokes the empyrean, the highest heavenly region; Milton’s Paradise Lost uses celestial expanses and “empyreal” fire in its cosmic setting; “Empyreal blue opened above the smoke-dark city” applies the adjective to exalted sky; in contemporary spiritual poetry, “an empyreal chord” can suggest music beyond ordinary earthly experience
Additional Notes
The word “empyreal” in the quoted line is a rare literary term, not a common modern word.; Found in the poem, Life by Anna Lætitia Barbauld
Also Known As
celestial heavenly ethereal
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