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Run its course

Idiomatic Phrase
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

To proceed through natural stages until completion or expiration; describes processes following inherent lifecycle or trajectory without external intervention, reaching inevitable conclusion.

Detailed Definition
Run its course means to continue through its natural development until it ends without further intervention. In poetry, the idiom can describe illness, grief, love, anger, fashion, political movements, seasons, or rivers. It suggests process, patience, and inevitability: some things cannot be hurried or stopped without distortion. A poet may use it to accept change, mourn decline, or observe emotional weather passing through the self. The phrase is useful for poems about time, healing, and the dignity of natural endings.
Example
Example in poetry:
A grief poem might say sorrow must run its course like winter through the fields; In a plague poem, the fever runs its course before bells return to silence; The phrase means to continue naturally until it ends; A poet can use it for illness, emotion, or history.
Additional Notes
Run its course means complete a natural process without interference, often used of illness, grief, events, or emotions. In poetry, it can express patience, resignation, trust in time, or helplessness. The course may be imagined as a riverbed, race, road, or life path. Students should ask whether letting something run its course is wise acceptance or passive neglect. The idiom suits poems about healing, mourning, seasons, and inevitable change.
Also Known As
end naturally
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