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spinning top

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

A spinning top is a toy that is set in motion to spin on its point, used in games of skill and duration.

Detailed Definition
Spinning top enters poetry as a symbol of precarious balance and the temporary energy of motion. In literary contexts it represents the whirl of activity before the fall. Poets use the top to meditate on the forces that keep things upright, the eventual wobble and collapse, and the childhood or cultural games that mirror the spinning of fortune.
Example
Example in poetry:
The spinning top’s brief and perfect balance supplies poets with images of temporary and self-contained energy; Verse of childhood and of metaphysics uses the toy for the motion that is also a stillness; “The top spun until the world itself seemed to lean on its single point” illustrates concentrated duration; Educational poetry shows the object as a lesson in applied and then exhausted force; Poets invoke the spinning top when the center must hold only for a little while.
Additional Notes
The spinning top’s brief and perfect balance on its point supplies poets with an image of temporary, self-contained, and almost miraculous motion. The toy’s eventual wobble and fall map cleanly onto any energy that cannot be sustained forever. Classroom discussion can usefully contrast the plain spinning top with the whip top or the peg top. Related skill toys include the various forms of the top. The image works best when the center must hold only for a little while.
Also Known As
whirling top spinning toy gyroscopic plaything diabolo
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