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kindly

Adjective
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

An adjective describing a gentle, mild, or benevolent nature; historically used in poetry to indicate natural, fitting, or affectionate behavior.

Detailed Definition
Here kindly means gentle or gracious rather than simply friendly. In older or poetic usage, it can describe a soft, favorable quality in nature or the world.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Upon earth’s kindly breast” personifies the earth as nurturing and protective; “The kindly nurse closed the curtain against the rain” uses the ordinary sense of benevolent; “A kindly autumn spared the last tomatoes” gives weather human generosity; In older usage, kindly can also mean natural or native, so context may suggest both tenderness and belonging
Additional Notes
In "Earth's kindly breast," kindly is used in an older poetic sense that may not be the first meaning modern readers expect.; Found in the poem, To a Traveller by Lionel Johnson
Also Known As
gentle benevolent gracious
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