Ideograph

Concept
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

A poetic image that represents an idea rather than depicting an object

Detailed Definition
An ideograph in poetry is a word or symbol that conveys a complex idea or image directly through visual or conceptual association rather than phonetic representation, drawing on Ezra Pound’s notion of the “ideogrammic method” to juxtapose concrete images for intellectual or emotional synthesis.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ideograph: Chinese character “明” (sun + moon = bright) as poetic ideograph; Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” uses imagist ideographs; Emoji poetry replacing words with symbolic icons; Cave paintings as proto-ideographic verse; Contemporary poems using mathematical symbols as ideographs; Visual poetry where shape conveys meaning beyond words
Additional Notes
Character/symbol representing idea directly, not sound. Chinese characters example. Related: ideogrammic method, visual language. Study: how ideographic thinking affects poetic composition.
Also Known As
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