Home › Glossary › Letter R

Rat race

Idiomatic Phrase
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

The competitive, exhausting struggle for success in modern society; compares relentless career competition to rats running endlessly in maze, highlighting futility and stress.

Detailed Definition
Rat race means a competitive, exhausting, and often meaningless struggle for money, status, advancement, or survival. In poetry, the idiom is useful for modern work, urban life, commuting, consumerism, and social pressure. The rat image dehumanises the system, suggesting frantic movement within a maze rather than purposeful living. A poet may use it to criticise ambition without fulfilment, or to express the desire to escape into nature, art, love, or stillness. It suits poems about alienation and modern speed.
Example
Example in poetry:
A city poem might describe the rat race of trains, clocks, and pale office windows; In satire, the rat race turns ambition into a wheel where no one arrives; The phrase means a tiring competitive struggle for success; A poet can use it to criticise modern working life.
Additional Notes
Rat race describes the exhausting competition of modern work, status, money, and routine. In poetry, it can critique capitalism, urban life, commuting, ambition, or the reduction of human beings to frantic survival. The rat image is deliberately degrading: people scurry through systems not of their own making. Students should notice the implied maze, repetition, and scarcity. It pairs well with clocks, trains, offices, tunnels, and appetite.
Also Known As
competitive struggle
Skip to main content