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sibylline phrase

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

An enigmatic, prophetic utterance associated with oracles or seers

Detailed Definition
Sibylline phrases trade in ambiguity and dread, cloaking revelation in riddle; they lend poetic authority through mystery, suggesting the speaker channels hidden knowledge too vast or terrible for plain speech.
Example
Example in poetry:
Sibylline phrase: The leaves of prophecy scatter on the wind; the oracle speaks in riddles, not in truth; the future is written in smoke, not in stone; the sibylline phrase demands interpretation.
Additional Notes
Sibylline phrases are enigmatic oracles: “The leaves of prophecy scatter on the wind”; they demand interpretation, often using metaphor, inversion, or ambiguity; found in Eliot, Pound, and modernist poets; avoid obscurity—each phrase should yield meaning upon reflection; related to sibyllic phrase, oracular phrase, and mystic utterance; powerful in poems of fragmentation, revelation, or cultural decay.
Also Known As
oracle phrase cryptic prophecy enigmatic utterance
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