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Teleuton

Rhyme
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 rare term referring to rhyme of line-final syllables or repeated final words.

Detailed Definition
Teleuton refers to the final word of a line in poetry, particularly in forms like the sestina where teleutons are repeated in a fixed permutation across stanzas; the strategic choice of teleutons shapes the poem’s sonic and semantic architecture, as their recurrence creates thematic echoes and rhythmic anchors, making each end-word a pivot around which meaning accumulates and transforms.
Example
Example in poetry:
Teleuton is the final word of a line, often key to rhyme: In “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, “day” is the teleuton; “Roses are red, / Violets are blue”—“red” and “blue” are teleutons; In terza rima, teleutons drive the interlocking rhyme; Poets choose teleutons carefully for sound and meaning impact.
Additional Notes
Teleuton|A rhetorical figure where two or more successive words or phrases in a poem end with the same sound or word part; a general term for similar-ending words, related to homeoteleuton.
Also Known As
Final rhyme End-rhyme Concluding word-rhyme Antipodal rhyme
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