Home › Glossary › Letter S

sleeket

Dialect
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

A Scottish dialect word meaning smooth, sleek, or glossy; famously used by Robert Burns in "To a Mouse" ("Sleeket, cowrin, tim'rous beastie").

Detailed Definition
In Scots, this describes something smooth or glossy in appearance. Burns uses it to characterize the mouse as small, tidy, and delicate, which helps create sympathy for the creature.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim’rous beastie” — Robert Burns, “To a Mouse,” where Scots sleekit means sly or furtive; “sleekit” pairs with “cowran” to make the mouse seem stealthy and fearful; Burns’s dialect gives rural speech and the animal encounter local texture; compare standard English “sly” in a modern paraphrase of the line; the word’s soft consonants suit the mouse’s quiet movement
Additional Notes
The word “sleeket” in the opening line is Scots dialect and may not be familiar to modern readers.; Found in the poem, To a Mouse by Robert Burns
Also Known As
sleek smooth polished
Skip to main content