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strident

Adjective
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

Loud, harsh, grating, and urgent in sound; describes piercing voices, crude instruments, or discordant environmental noise.

Detailed Definition
Strident describes a voice or sound that is unpleasantly loud, sharp, or forceful. In poetry, it often helps create an atmosphere of social tension or irritation, as in a room full of noisy conversation.
Example
Example in poetry:
“They talked of their affairs / In loud and strident voices” — strident means harsh, grating, and piercing in sound; it can describe voices, alarms, instruments, or an aggressively forceful tone; the contrast between ordinary “affairs” and abrasive voices reveals tension beneath conversation; T. S. Eliot’s urban soundscapes often use unpleasant noise to convey alienation; contemporary poems may use stridency to register protest as well as conflict
Additional Notes
In the line quoted, 'strident' is a less common descriptive adjective that many readers may need to look up.; Found in the poem, The Garden Party by Hilaire Belloc
Also Known As
piercing forceful loud stridently
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