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warbled

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

Sang or trilled in a light, musical way, especially like a bird.

Detailed Definition
Warbled is a more literary word than simply sang, and it often suggests a quavering, birdlike melody. Lear uses it to make the Jumblies’ song sound whimsical and slightly comic.
Example
Example in poetry:
“They whistled and warbled a moony song” combines clear whistles with trilling melody; warbled is the past tense of warble and often describes birdsong or light human singing; “The thrush warbled from the telephone wire” mixes natural voice and modern setting; “She warbled the refrain, then let the silence answer” applies the word to a singer’s ornamented delivery
Additional Notes
The quoted word is less common in everyday speech than sang, so readers may pause over its exact sense.; Found in the poem, The Jumblies by Edward Lear
Also Known As
sang chirped trilled twittered
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