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hazard

Games
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

Hazard is an old English dice game of pure chance, similar to modern craps, played with two dice where players bet on outcomes.

Detailed Definition
In poetry, hazard frequently symbolizes the unpredictable risks of life, fortune, and human ambition, as seen in Shakespeare's Richard III where Richard declares he will stand the hazard of the die, equating battle to a gamble. Chaucer also references it in the Canterbury Tales to critique greed and folly among pilgrims. Poets use hazard to explore themes of fate versus free will, moral hazard in decisions, and the precariousness of power, reflecting how chance governs both games and existence itself in medieval and Renaissance verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Hazard’s dice and declared main appear throughout early modern poetry as pure risk; Shakespeare and Chaucer place the game at the center of moral and financial danger; “He set his life upon the hazard of the die” illustrates total commitment; Educational verse explains the game as the ancestor of craps; Poets keep hazard when fortune must be faced without the cushion of skill.
Additional Notes
Hazard, the ancestral English dice game, remains poetry’s purest emblem of unmediated chance. Shakespeare and Chaucer already treat the cast as a figure for the risk of life itself. Classroom discussion can usefully compare hazard with its modern descendant craps to show continuity of language and structure. Related terms include the main, the chance, and the general vocabulary of the dice table. The image is inexhaustible because the two dice can still decide everything in a single throw.
Also Known As
hazard table craps
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