Home › Glossary › Letter T

Trombone

Musical Instrument
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

A brass instrument with a telescoping slide, known for its vocal-like glissandi

Detailed Definition
The trombone’s bold, sliding voice appears in jazz, sacred, and urban poetry to symbolize proclamation, lament, and sonic drama; its association with the “sacred trombone” in Renaissance music and modern jazz makes it a metaphor for lyrical transformation and emotional range in verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
In New Orleans jazz poetry, the trombone’s slide “talks back” to street preachers and second-line parades; A Langston Hughes poem describes the trombone as “a brass tongue licking the night”; Modern poets compare the trombone’s glissando to a lover’s sigh or a train’s departure; In a poem by Amiri Baraka, the trombone’s growl fuels revolutionary fire; A contemporary verse uses the trombone to evoke hospital waiting rooms and funeral processions; In diasporic Caribbean poetry, the trombone blends with congas to forge new hybrid rhythms.
Additional Notes
The trombone uses a slide to change pitch, offering seamless glissandi and a bold, vocal tone; from Renaissance sackbut to jazz and orchestral roles, it spans solemnity and swagger—poets can reference it to explore transformation (via slide), the trombone as herald of judgment (Last Trumpet), or its role in expressing both comic and tragic dimensions of the human condition.
Also Known As
sackbut
Skip to main content