Home › Glossary › Letter G

Gratification

Psychology
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 satisfaction produced when a desire, need, or impulse is fulfilled.

Detailed Definition
Gratification marks the emotional reward that follows attainment, consumption, recognition, or release. A poem may place immediate gratification beside delayed fulfillment, contrasting the bright bite of possession with the quieter value of waiting. The term can illuminate appetite, ambition, sexuality, praise, and revenge, while also asking whether satisfaction truly resolves longing or merely teaches desire to return in a new and more demanding form.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” promised pleasures are presented as immediate gratification through gifts, flowers, and seasonal delights; A comic poem may show gratification when a speaker receives the reward desired throughout the poem; A poem can contrast instant gratification with delayed fulfillment by placing quick pleasures beside patient labor; Repeated sensory images of sweetness, warmth, and touch can make gratification vivid
Additional Notes
Gratification is the pleasure or relief that follows fulfillment of a desire, goal, need, or impulse. Immediate gratification satisfies quickly, while delayed gratification involves postponing reward for a larger or later benefit. The concept connects with reinforcement, motivation, self-control, and reward learning. Poetry may depict gratification through release, sweetness, arrival, completion, or the contrast between wanting and having.
Also Known As
Satisfaction Pleasure Reward
Skip to main content