Home › Glossary › Letter G

Gable

Architecture
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

The triangular end of a pitched roof. In poetry, it can describe a peaked movement that rises to a narrow emotional or rhetorical point.

Detailed Definition
A gable is the triangular wall section at the end of a pitched roof, defined by the meeting slopes above it. In poetry, it can name a passage that ascends from wider statements toward a sharp apex before descending again. The shape may be created through shortening lines, intensifying syntax, or narrowing imagery. A gable-like structure gives a poem visible directional force. It is especially useful for describing a brief, peaked arrangement rather than a prolonged climax.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The gable held a triangle of evening sky” uses gable for the triangular upper wall beneath a pitched roof; A poet can write “one crow balanced on the gable” to create a sharply outlined rural image; “Wind worried the gable’s old boards” gives a house vulnerability and age; “Across the gables, snow lay like folded letters” uses repeated roof ends to shape a townscape
Additional Notes
A gable suggests ascent toward a peak and descent afterward. Use it to describe a stanza or argument that narrows toward a decisive image, question, or emotional climax.
Also Known As
Gable End
Skip to main content