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lapse

Noun
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 period of time elapsing, or a temporary fall in concentration or conduct; used in poetry to mark temporal shifts or human error.

Detailed Definition
In older or literary usage, lapse can mean a span of time that passes. Rossetti uses it to mark the delay between winter rain and the coming of spring growth. The word is familiar in some contexts, but this time-sense is less common for many readers.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Yet a lapse of weeks” marks an interval or break in continuity; “After a lapse of silence, the bell spoke” uses the noun for a pause; “One lapse of attention, and the candle guttered” means a brief failure of concentration; “The old tongue survived despite a lapse of generations” expands the word from a moment to historical time
Additional Notes
The time-meaning of "lapse" in the quoted phrase is literary and less everyday than the common modern senses of the word.; Found in the poem, Winter Rain by Christina Rossetti
Also Known As
interval pause lapse of time fleeting moment
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