Home › Glossary › Letter R

racing

Games
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

Racing is the general contest of speed between competitors, whether human, animal, or vehicle, toward a finish line.

Detailed Definition
Racing appears in poetry as a fundamental emblem of competition and the striving to be first. In literary contexts it represents the urgency of time and the measure of superiority. Poets invoke the race to illustrate themes of the starting gun, the stretch, and the tape, linking the physical contest to the larger races of life, ambition, and mortality.
Example
Example in poetry:
Racing in its general form appears as the pure contest of velocity and will; Verse of every kind of speed uses the term for the striving to be first; “He raced the light itself until the light gave way” illustrates absolute effort; Educational examples present the activity as the oldest and simplest form of competition; Poets return to racing whenever time and distance must be compressed into a single test.
Additional Notes
Racing, as the general contest of speed, supplies poets with the purest and most flexible image of the striving to be first. The term’s applicability to human, animal, or vehicle allows wide metaphorical range. Instructors may invite students to notice when the race is literal and when it is the race of life or time. Related specific forms include every named race. The image remains powerful because the finish line can stand for almost any decisive end.
Also Known As
Speed Trials Competitive Racing The Dash
Skip to main content