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Pilot

Nautical
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

A mariner responsible for steering a ship through hazardous or constrained waters; in nautical and allegorical poetry, the pilot embodies guidance, skill, and steadfast navigation through life's turbulent passages.

Detailed Definition
A pilot is a nautical guide who steers a vessel safely, especially into harbor or through dangerous channels. Here Tennyson uses the word metaphorically for a divine guide at the end of life: “my Pilot face to face.”
Example
Example in poetry:
Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar” hopes to see the “Pilot face to face,” making God a guide through death; “Pilot from the awful sea,” in Dickinson, imagines spiritual guidance amid danger; “The pilot read the shoals by moonlight,” uses the nautical specialist literally; A modern migration poem may call a grandmother “pilot of the old country”
Additional Notes
“Pilot” in this line is a specialized nautical word used metaphorically, so readers may need to identify its maritime sense.; Found in the poem, Crossing the Bar by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Also Known As
Navigator Guide Helmsman Wayfinder
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