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wannabe

Noun
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

A person who wants to be something they are not, often in a way that seems unconvincing or pretentious.

Detailed Definition
In informal English, a wannabe is someone who strongly wants the status, style, or success of another person or group. The word is especially common in pop culture and can sound mocking or self-mocking, as in this poem’s repeated use of it to describe the speaker’s unrealized ambitions.
Example
Example in poetry:
“I’m just a wannabe” uses a colloquial noun for someone who wants to imitate or become something admired; the term can carry self-mockery, contempt, or sympathetic ambition depending on tone; “A rock-star wannabe tuned his thrift-store guitar” gives it a concrete contemporary setting; “Call me a wannabe poet, I still keep writing” reclaims the label as persistence
Additional Notes
The word in "I'm just a wannabe" is slangy and informal, so readers may want a quick definition.; Found in the poem, The Wannabe Blues by Richard
Also Known As
aspirant dreamer imitator hopeful
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