Home › Glossary › Letter M

Margin

Printing
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

The blank area surrounding text on a printed page. Margins shape readability and visual balance.

Detailed Definition
A margin is the unprinted space around a page's text block, including the inner, outer, top, and bottom edges. It provides room for handling, binding, notes, and visual rest, while also helping define the page's proportions. In poetry, margins are especially expressive because white space can frame a lyric, isolate a short line, or create a sense of silence around language. Narrowing or widening margins changes not only a book's economy but also the reader's physical and visual encounter with each poem.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poet can use a wide left margin to make a short lyric appear isolated on the page; In e. e. cummings’s visually arranged poems, surrounding white space functions like a margin that affects pace and emphasis; A narrow margin in a chapbook can create an intimate, compressed feeling for densely lineated poems; A poet designing a prose poem may widen the margins so the block of text does not overwhelm the reader
Additional Notes
Margins provide visual breathing room and affect line length, a key factor in poetic pacing and readability. Narrow margins can make a page feel dense; wider ones may create emphasis or spaciousness.
Also Known As
Border Edge Verge Periphery brim marge
Skip to main content