Home › Glossary › Letter M

marred

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

Damaged, disfigured, or spoiled—suggesting loss of beauty or integrity, common in elegiac or ruin-themed verse.

Detailed Definition
“Marred” implies irreversible harm—beauty marred, plans marred. In poetry, it conveys loss of perfection. The term’s harshness mirrors injury. Poets use it to explore fragility of ideals, where human or divine work is flawed, reinforcing themes of imperfection, regret, and the passage of time in meditative and tragic verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
“His face was marred by sorrow, not age,” in a psychological portrait; In Milton: “His visage marred, yet spirit bright”; “The tablet was marred by careless hands”; “War marred the land, but not its soul”; “Her song was marred by tears, yet sweet”; The fresco, though marred, held traces of glory.
Additional Notes
“Marred” implies defacement of inherent value; in art or beauty poems, a “marred visage” or “marred creation” laments corruption of the ideal, often tied to sin, time, or human error.
Also Known As
spoiled damaged ruined
Skip to main content