Home › Glossary › Letter P

pitchfork

Farming
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 pitchfork is a long-handled farm tool with several prongs, used for lifting and moving hay, straw, or manure.

Detailed Definition
The pitchfork is designed to gather, toss, and load loose agricultural materials, especially during haymaking and the cleaning of animal buildings. Its long handle and pointed tines give it a striking visual form. In poetry, it represents physical labour, harvest activity, and the rough equipment of rural life. It may also become a symbol of rebellion or mob anger because improvised rural crowds were imagined carrying farm tools as weapons. Thus it can move from peaceful husbandry to menace within a single image.
Example
Example in poetry:
A pitchfork lifting hay can demonstrate the muscular work of harvest; Its pointed tines may give an ordinary farm scene a hint of danger; Villagers carrying pitchforks can symbolise revolt or collective anger; A pitchfork left standing in an empty barn may evoke interrupted labour or the disappearance of traditional farming.
Additional Notes
A pitchfork is a long-handled tool with several widely spaced tines, used mainly to lift loose hay, straw, or manure. It differs from a garden fork, whose shorter, stronger tines are intended for digging soil. In poetry, the pitchfork may represent harvest labour, rustic life, improvised defence, or popular rebellion. Related terms include hay, straw, manure, barn, farmhand, fork, tines, haymaking, loading, and rural protest.
Other Meanings of “pitchfork”
Also Known As
hayfork straw fork manure fork
Skip to main content