Home › Glossary › Letter U

Universal present

Concept
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 tense or mode expressing timeless, always-true statements in poetry.

Detailed Definition
Universal present is a poetic tense that renders actions or states as eternally valid, transcending specific time or place; it uses present-tense verbs to assert truths that apply to all people at all times, lending aphorisms, myths, and wisdom literature their characteristic authority and philosophical weight.
Example
Example in poetry:
“All flesh is grass” (Isaiah) — universal truth; “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” (Rousseau, poetic phrasing); “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” (Declaration); “The world is all that is the case” (Wittgenstein, aphoristic universal).
Additional Notes
Universal present expresses eternal truths independent of time (“The sun rises in the east”). Nearly synonymous with timeless present—central to wisdom and aphoristic poetry.
Also Known As
Eternal now cosmic present mythic tense perpetual moment Aphoristic present Gnomic present
Skip to main content