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Knee

Anatomy
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

The joint between the thigh and lower leg, associated with bending, kneeling, weakness, and movement.

Detailed Definition
The knee appears in poetry when a body yields, falls, prays, works, or rises. Bent knees may indicate humility, devotion, surrender, exhaustion, or desire, while scraped knees can recall childhood and physical risk. Because the joint allows walking and running, injury to it can symbolize interrupted freedom or changed identity. Poets often use knees to make abstract states tangible, showing how grief buckles the body or how hope steadies someone enough to stand again.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Bended knee” can signify prayer, surrender, or devotion depending on context; “Her knees buckled under the news” translates emotional shock into bodily action; A poet might write “the boy knelt until the grass marked his knees” to show humility and duration; “The river bent its knee at the ford” can personify a river slowing or lowering itself
Additional Notes
Because knees bend and bear weight, they can symbolize both mobility and submission. Kneeling may signal prayer, devotion, defeat, or proposal, while weak knees can dramatize fear, exhaustion, or desire.
Also Known As
Kneecap Joint of the Leg Bended Knee Genuflecting Joint
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