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precipice

Noun
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 very steep cliff or edge. It is often used figuratively for a dangerous point or crisis.

Detailed Definition
Literally, a precipice is a steep rock face or cliff. In poetry and prose, it often suggests being on the brink of disaster or a sudden fall, as in a situation that feels unstable and urgent.
Example
Example in poetry:
“We’re on the edge, a precipice,” makes the cliff a figure for danger and decision; Shelley’s “Mont Blanc” uses mountain vastness to confront human limits; “At the precipice, the goats moved with impossible calm,” uses the literal landform; Contemporary political verse may call a climate crisis a precipice
Additional Notes
In the line “We’re on the edge, a precipice,” the word is used in a figurative sense and is less everyday than common words like edge or fall.; Found in the poem, Voices in the Storm by Richard
Other Meanings of “precipice”
Also Known As
cliff's edge brink verge threshold
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