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shuttlecock

Games
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

Shuttlecock is the projectile of feathers and cork or plastic used in badminton and its ancestral games.

Detailed Definition
Shuttlecock enters poetry as a refined emblem of the aerial object and the focus of the strung racket. In modern and historical literature it represents the thing that flies between. Poets use shuttlecock to explore themes of the cork base, the feathered crown, and the cultural object that has sustained the imagery of the graceful and rapid contest of the court.
Example
Example in poetry:
The shuttlecock’s brief hover before the fall supplies poets with an image of suspended choice; Verse uses the moment of stillness to stage the decision that will send it one way or the other; “He watched the shuttlecock decide and felt the same decision in his own chest” illustrates mirrored hesitation; Educational poetry shows the object as a teacher of timing; Poets invoke the term when the pause itself must carry the drama.
Additional Notes
Shuttlecock, the projectile of feathers and cork or plastic, supplies poets with a ready emblem of temporary flight and the necessity of continuous return. The object’s dual material history allows movement between the natural and the manufactured. Classroom discussion can usefully examine how the change from feather to plastic alters the emotional register of the game. Related terms include shuttle and the general language of the airborne focus. The image works best when the poet needs both the ascent and the inevitable drop.
Other Meanings of “shuttlecock”
Also Known As
birdie bird shuttle
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