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unbowed

Adjective
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

Not bent or humbled; standing resolute and undefeated against hardship, as famously expressed in Henley's poem "Invictus."

Detailed Definition
The word describes someone who remains upright in body or spirit despite hardship. It is a literary, compressed way of saying the speaker has not been broken by suffering.
Example
Example in poetry:
“My head is bloody, but unbowed” (Henley, “Invictus”); Though grief bent her shoulders, she walked unbowed; The old oak stood unbowed beneath the gale; “Unbowed” figuratively conveys dignity and resistance; In a protest poem, unbowed voices may refuse silence
Additional Notes
"Unbowed" in the quoted line is a literary adjective that may be less familiar than everyday vocabulary.; Found in the poem, Invictus by William Ernest Henley
Also Known As
unbent unyielding resolute
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