Home › Glossary › Letter J

Jingle

Sound
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

A catchy, often simplistic rhyme or rhythm used for mnemonic or commercial effect, sometimes pejoratively

Detailed Definition
A jingle is a short, catchy, often commercial or children’s verse characterized by simple diction, repetitive rhythm, and insistent rhyme; while sometimes dismissed as trivial, it demonstrates effective mnemonic and musical techniques that poets may parody or subvert for ironic purposes.
Example
Example in poetry:
Jingle: “Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker” (Ogden Nash); Advertising jingles: “Have a break, have a KitKat”; Nursery rhymes: “Baa baa black sheep”; Political slogans as poetic jingles: “Yes we can!”; Modern earworm poetry using repetitive hooks; Eco-jingles: “Reduce, reuse, recycle” as verse
Additional Notes
Simple, repetitive verse with strong rhythm, often for children. Musical quality emphasized over meaning. Can be dismissive term for trivial verse. Related to doggerel but emphasizes sound over sense.
Also Known As
catchy rhyme commercial verse
Skip to main content