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sultry

Archaic Terms
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

Oppressively hot and humid—creating an atmosphere of languor or discomfort, common in descriptive or Gothic poetry.

Detailed Definition
“Sultry” conveys atmospheric heaviness—sultry nights, sultry passions. In poetry, it symbolizes languor or erotic tension. The term’s softness mirrors humidity. Poets use it to explore how climate affects mood, where sultriness breeds desire or lethargy, reinforcing themes of sensuality, decay, and environmental influence in descriptive and lyrical traditions.
Example
Example in poetry:
The sultry air hung thick as velvet over the marshes, stifling breath and thought alike; "Sultry the night, and loud the frogs that croak," wrote Coleridge in a notebook fragment; In Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Enobarbus describes Egypt’s "sultry vapours" that cling to the flesh; Romantic poets often used "sultry" to evoke oppressive heat as a metaphor for passion or moral decay; "Sultry noon" appears in Milton’s Paradise Lost to mark the hour of lethargy and temptation; The sultry silence before the storm mirrored the tension in the lovers’ unspoken words.
Additional Notes
The term “sultry” persists in modern English but carries stronger archaic connotations in poetry, often evoking oppressive, languid atmospheres that mirror emotional or moral decay; in Romantic and Gothic verse, it frequently appears in descriptions of tropical or infernal settings to heighten sensuality or dread.
Also Known As
oppressive sweltering humid
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