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Ordnance

Military
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

Military weapons and ammunition, especially heavy weapons. The word has a formal, institutional tone that can make destruction sound organized.

Detailed Definition
Ordnance refers broadly to weapons, ammunition, and the equipment associated with their use, including artillery and other large systems. In poetry, its bureaucratic sound can sharpen the contrast between administrative language and physical suffering. A line about ordnance may invoke warehouses, inventories, contracts, and trains moving toward the front, showing how violence depends on systems as well as courage. The term can therefore widen a poem’s focus from the battlefield to the industries and decisions that prepare it.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The abandoned ordnance rusted beneath the hill,” using ordnance for military weapons and ammunition; “Cannon and cartridge, the poem’s grim ordnance, darken the harbor,” showing the term in a martial image; “The quartermaster inventoried the ordnance before the campaign,” demonstrating its administrative use; “Words become ordnance when the poet aims them at injustice,” using the term metaphorically for instruments of attack
Additional Notes
Ordnance refers to weapons and ammunition, particularly artillery and other heavy equipment, rather than to warfare in general. Its bureaucratic tone can create irony by presenting violence as inventory or administration. Distinguish it from ordinance, a law or regulation. Related terms include artillery, armament, munitions, arsenal, and matériel.
Also Known As
Munitions Armaments artillery Cannon Firepower Missile Weaponry
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