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nettles

Flora
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

Stinging plants with leaves that can irritate the skin. They are often used as a symbol of unpleasantness.

Detailed Definition
Nettles are plants covered with tiny stinging hairs that can cause irritation when touched. In literature they often stand for harshness, pain, or something troublesome. Waller pairs them with thorns to describe people who are difficult and unlovely.
Example
Example in poetry:
“But some so like to thorns and nettles live” uses nettles as a figure for harshness; “Among the nettles, the child found one blue egg” makes the stinging plant tactile; Keats’s “where the nettles stung” places nettles in a rough natural landscape; “Nettles reclaim the fence-line after the mill shuts” gives the flora social and contemporary context.
Additional Notes
The word 'nettles' in the quoted line names a specific plant that many readers may know only vaguely or not at all.; Found in the poem, Fade, Flow'rs! by Edmund Waller
Also Known As
Stinging Nettles Brambles Thistles Prickles
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