Home › Glossary › Letter L

lack

Archaic Terms
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

To be without or deficient in something—expressing absence or need, often in plaintive or yearning tones.

Detailed Definition
“Lack” frames absence as active state—“lack of virtue.” In poetry, it structures desire or critique. The verb’s simplicity suits universal themes. Poets use it to express need, loss, or social indictment, where what is missing defines character or society, reinforcing themes of want, longing, and incompleteness.
Example
Example in poetry:
“He felt a lack of purpose in his days,” in a reflective lyric; In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 30: “And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe, / And moan the expense of many a vanished sight”; “Lack not courage, though friends fail thee,” urges a stoic; “The land suffered lack of rain for seven years”; “Her song filled the lack in his heart”; Want is lack made visible.
Additional Notes
“Lack” frames absence as active deprivation; in sonnets or laments, “lack of love” or “lack of grace” isn’t neutral—it implies yearning, injustice, or existential void central to poetic pathos.
Also Known As
deficiency shortage want dearth
Skip to main content