Home › Glossary › Letter G

ghostly phrase

Phrase
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

Language evoking specters, hauntings, or the uncanny presence of absence

Detailed Definition
Ghostly phrases blur boundaries between life and death, memory and hallucination; they use pale imagery, whispering sounds, and liminal spaces to make the past palpably, eerily present within the poem’s now.
Example
Example in poetry:
The ghostly phrase drifted through the hall, unheard by the living; it was the echo of a name never spoken aloud; the wind carried it, but no throat dared repeat it; the ghostly phrase remembers what the living forgot.
Additional Notes
Ghostly phrases evoke absence made present: “The ghostly phrase drifted through the hall”; they suggest haunting, memory, or unresolved grief; use whispery sounds, negative space, and ethereal imagery; related to lost phrase, silent phrase, and haunting phrase; ideal for poems of mourning, history, or the uncanny.
Also Known As
haunting phrase spectral phrase ghost image
Skip to main content