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gossamer

Noun
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

gossamer: An extremely light, thin, and delicate substance, such as a spider's web, evoking fragility, transience, and the ethereal quality of fine threads suspended in air.

Detailed Definition
Gossamer originally refers to a fine, filmy cobweb, and by extension to anything extremely delicate or airy. Whitman uses it to describe the thread the spider casts, emphasizing fragility and tenuous connection.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul” makes the thin thread a metaphor for hope or connection; Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” asks the wind to scatter thoughts like “withered leaves,” similarly making intangible feeling visible through natural imagery; “A gossamer bridge between two voices” suggests a bond that is real but easily broken; In ecological poetry, “gossamer web jeweled with rain” can emphasize both spider craft and the vulnerability of small lives
Additional Notes
"Gossamer" is a literary and somewhat old-fashioned word that many readers may not know without looking it up.; Found in the poem, A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman
Other Meanings of “gossamer”
Also Known As
diaphanous ethereal delicate
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