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sepulchre

Archaic Terms
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 tomb or burial chamber, particularly one that is hewn in stone or built above ground; evokes ancient, sacred rituals and solemnity, often used in poetry to symbolize mortality and remembrance.

Detailed Definition
“Sepulchre” is a literary and archaic word for a tomb. In the poem, Annabel Lee is placed in a sepulchre by the sea, giving her burial a solemn, old-fashioned atmosphere.
Example
Example in poetry:
“To shut her up in a sepulchre” uses an elevated term for a tomb or burial chamber; Keats writes of a “still steadfastness” around death, a fitting sepulchral mood; “The ruined sepulchre held only rain and ivy” makes the noun concrete; Modern imitation: “Memory became a sepulchre for the unsaid”
Additional Notes
The quoted word is an archaic literary term for a tomb that many modern readers may need to look up.; Found in the poem, Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
Also Known As
tomb grave burial place
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