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
An eight-line stanza or the first section of a Petrarchan sonnet, typically presenting a problem, situation, or thematic proposition.
Explore this topic in depth (2)
Sonnet
— The sonnet is one of poetry's most enduring forms: compact enough to concentrate thought, yet flexible enough for love, politics, faith, nature and grief. This guide explores its history, structures and variations, with particular attention to the volta—the turn that gives many sonnets their dramatic movement.
Volta
— A volta is a turn: the moment when a poem changes direction in its thinking, feeling, argument, perspective, tone or imagery. Though closely associated with the sonnet, the volta can occur in almost any poem and at almost any point.
Detailed Definition
An octave is a stanza or poem of eight lines, commonly used as the first part of a Petrarchan sonnet where it typically presents a problem, situation, or question and follows a rhyme scheme such as ABBAABBA, establishing thematic and tonal groundwork for the resolving sestet.
Example
Example in poetry:
Octave is the first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet, often presenting a problem: “When I consider how my light is spent… / And that one talent which is death to hide.”
Additional Notes
Octave: An eight-line stanza; in sonnets, the first eight lines (usually ABBAABBA) that present a situation or problem; contrasts with the sestet’s resolution.