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pasture

Farming
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

Grassland or meadow kept for grazing livestock; a foundational setting in pastoral poetry signifying peace and agricultural life.

Detailed Definition
Pasture provides living forage for cattle, sheep, horses, and other grazing animals, and its quality depends on soil, rainfall, season, and management. In poetry, green pasture is a traditional image of nourishment, security, peace, and providential care. Biblical language gives it spiritual resonance as a place where the vulnerable are guided and sustained. Yet pasture can also reveal drought, overuse, enclosure, or ownership. Its apparent naturalness often conceals the labour required to fence, drain, seed, and maintain it.
Example
Example in poetry:
Green pasture can symbolise nourishment, peace, and providential care; Dry pasture may represent drought, scarcity, and failed hopes; Livestock moving to fresh pasture can suggest renewal or migration; Enclosed pasture may invite reflection on ownership, boundaries, and the management of apparently natural land.
Additional Notes
Pasture is grassland used primarily for livestock grazing, whether permanent or temporary. It may appear natural, but farmers often seed, drain, fence, fertilise, and rotate it. Poetry frequently uses green pasture as an image of nourishment, rest, security, and providential care. Dry or exhausted pasture reverses these associations. Related terms include grazing, meadow, grassland, paddock, livestock, forage, herd, flock, common pasture, and overgrazing.
Also Known As
grazing land pastureland lea ley herbage leasow pasturage leaze
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