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fell

Archaic Terms
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

Fierce, cruel, savage, or deadly; also means a bare hill, moorland, or elevated tract of open country, particularly in northern England and Scotland.

Detailed Definition
As adjective, “fell” intensifies savagery—“fell destruction.” As noun, it denotes wild upland. Both appear in poetry: the former for violence, the latter for isolation. The duality allows metaphor—e.g., a “fell” mind mirroring barren landscape. Poets use it in Gothic or elegiac contexts to evoke terror, desolation, or untamed nature opposing civilization.
Example
Example in poetry:
"A fell wind howled through the ruins," in a gothic scene; In Shakespeare’s King Lear: "The fell sergeant, Death, is strict in his arrest"; "His fell purpose chilled their blood"; Milton describes Satan’s "fell intent"; "The fell disease spared no one"; Fell despair gripped the besieged city.
Additional Notes
“Fell” as an adjective means cruel or deadly (from Old French “fel”), not to be confused with “fell” as hill; in battle or Gothic scenes, “fell intent” or “fell beast” heightens menace through stark, monosyllabic intensity.
Other Meanings of “fell”
Also Known As
fierce cruel deadly fleece Mountain
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