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fatuous

Adjective
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

Foolishly self-satisfied, silly, or lacking sound judgment; the word often implies a smug emptiness rather than merely harmless foolishness.

Detailed Definition
In older or literary usage, fatuous means more than just “silly”; it suggests something absurdly pointless or self-defeating. Owen uses it to describe the sunbeams as if their life-giving effort has become meaningless in the face of death.
Example
Example in poetry:
“O what made fatuous sunbeams toil” means foolish, smug, or pointless; “His fatuous boast rang hollow in the hall”; “The fatuous king mistook applause for love”; “A fatuous grin crossed the speaker’s face”
Additional Notes
In the line “O what made fatuous sunbeams toil,” the adjective is literary and less common in everyday speech, so readers may need to look it up.; Found in the poem, Futility by Wilfred Owen
Also Known As
foolish silly absurd nonsensical
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