Home › Glossary › Letter N

nonrepeating-letter text

Form
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

A constrained poetic form avoiding repeated use of specific letters

Detailed Definition
Nonrepeating-letter text is an extreme constraint-based form where no letter of the alphabet appears more than once in the entire poem, demanding inventive diction and serving as a virtuosic exercise in linguistic limitation.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem avoiding the letter “e” entirely, like Ernest Vincent Wright’s novel “Gadsby” (applied to poetry); Christian Bök’s “Eunoia” uses chapters with only one vowel each; A poem using only letters from the first half of the alphabet; A constraint poem omitting all vowels except “o” for sonic effect.
Additional Notes
Nonrepeating-letter text (a lipogram) omits specific letters; an extreme constraint used for virtuosity or thematic emphasis; exemplified by Christian Bök’s “Eunoia.”
Also Known As
Lipogrammatic verse Letter-omission poetry Constrained alphabet poem
Skip to main content