Home › Glossary › Letter P

protracted

Adjective
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

Extended in time, drawn out, or unnecessarily prolonged; describes lingering agony, long wars, or tedious delays in narrative verse.

Detailed Definition
Browning uses 'protracted' to describe love's slow growth. It is a formal, somewhat specialized word that appears more often in literary or elevated writing than in casual conversation.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Your love’s protracted growing” — Robert Browning, “The Last Ride Together”; The protracted dusk delays the first star; In “Ulysses,” Tennyson makes waiting feel long before departure; A protracted farewell stretches across several slow-lined stanzas
Additional Notes
The phrase 'love's protracted growing' uses a formal word for something extended in time, which is less common in everyday speech.; Found in the poem, You'll love Me yet by Robert Browning
Also Known As
extended prolonged drawn-out lengthy
Skip to main content