Home › Glossary › Letter T

temples

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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 flat parts of the head at the sides, between the forehead and the ears.

Detailed Definition
In poetry, temples often means the sides of the head, not a religious building. Waller uses it in the phrase about the ribbon now binding the speaker’s head.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Shall now my joyful temples bind” uses temples for the sides of the head, often crowned in celebratory verse; “Laurel cooled his temples after the race” recalls classical victory imagery; “At her temples, silver gathered like frost” gives the anatomical noun an intimate visual role; “The drumbeat pressed against my temples” uses it for bodily sensation and stress.
Additional Notes
The word is easy to miss because it has an anatomical meaning in the quoted line, not the more familiar meaning of a place of worship.; Found in the poem, On a Girdle by Edmund Waller
Also Known As
shrines sanctuaries houses of worship
Skip to main content