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trills

Verb
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

Sings or sounds with rapid, vibrating, quavering notes; used to describe bird song or sweet musical instruments in pastoral verse.

Detailed Definition
To trill is to produce a rapid, vibrating musical sound. In this poem, the bugle “trills,” giving the scene a bright, celebratory musical quality.
Example
Example in poetry:
Whitman writes, “For you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills”; A bird “trills” when it produces a rapid, musical sequence of notes; “The flute trills” can imitate ornamented sound through repeated consonants; The verb often gives a line brightness, ceremony, or birdsong
Additional Notes
The verb “trills” is a specialized musical word here, and its exact sense may not be obvious to all readers.; Found in the poem, O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman
Also Known As
melodic trills chirps warbles whistlings
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