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Quoin

Architecture
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 dressed stone placed at the corner of a building for strength and emphasis. In poetry, it denotes a sharply placed word or image that defines a turn or boundary.

Detailed Definition
A quoin is a carefully finished stone at the corner of a building, often distinguished from surrounding masonry by size, color, or texture. It reinforces the junction of two walls while making the corner visually emphatic. In poetry, a quoin can describe a decisive word, image, or line placed where one movement turns into another. It carries both structural and ornamental force. The term is useful for moments that define a poem's angle, boundary, or change of direction.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The quoins at each corner caught the last sun” uses quoins for the large dressed stones reinforcing or decorating a building’s corners; A poet might write “ivy loosened its grip on the quoins” to show time acting on a stone house; “White quoins squared the chapel against the field” emphasizes the visible corner stones and the building’s solidity; “At every quoin, the old house held its breath” makes the reinforced corners symbolize endurance
Additional Notes
A quoin strengthens and emphasizes a corner. In verse, a sharply chosen word, rhyme, image, or turn can serve as a quoin, defining where one section ends and another begins.
Also Known As
Cornerstone Angle Stone
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