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tadpoles

Fauna
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

The young, swimming stage of a frog or toad before it grows legs.

Detailed Definition
Tadpoles are the larval form of frogs and toads, living in water before metamorphosis. Here the word helps show the pond setting and the speaker’s comic popularity with even the youngest pond creatures.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The newts all wanna date me, the tadpoles wanna play” gives tadpoles comic, childlike agency; “Tadpoles stipple the pond’s warm edge” observes their clustered movement; “From tadpoles to frogs, the marsh rehearses change” uses metamorphosis as a poetic theme; “We watched tadpoles grow their hind legs in the jar” grounds wonder in close observation.
Additional Notes
The quoted line uses a biological term for young frogs that some readers may need to identify.; Found in the poem, Mr. Perfect Pond by Richard
Also Known As
Larval Frogs Tadpole Stage Aquatic Youth
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