enfold

Craft Terms
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

Enfold means to wrap around, surround, or take in; in poetry, it can suggest enclosing an image, feeling, or idea within a larger shape.

Detailed Definition
Literally, enfold describes the act of folding something over or around something else. In poetry, it may imply tenderness, protection, or the gathering of many elements into one encompassing form. It belongs to craft language because it evokes the enclosing action of making and shaping.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poet may describe wings enfolding a bird's young as an image of protective love; Enfolding fog or mist often appears in poems to evoke mystery or the blurring of memory; A love poem might describe an embrace as enfolding, suggesting safety and intimacy; A poet describing night might use enfolding darkness to evoke both comfort and the unknown; Grief poetry sometimes describes being enfolded by absence rather than presence; A poem about homeland might describe being enfolded by familiar hills after long exile.
Additional Notes
Enfold suggests a gentle, protective enclosure, often used in poems about maternal love, comfort, or the natural world's embrace of human figures; the term differs from more neutral terms like wrap or surround in its connotation of tenderness and care, making it especially common in lullabies, elegies, and poems about homecoming; instructors might explore how enfolding imagery often involves natural elements like fog, wings, or darkness, suggesting that comfort and mystery are closely linked in the poetic imagination.
Also Known As
wrap enclose fold envelop
Skip to main content