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Wasting

Disease
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

Gradually losing flesh, strength, or vitality through disease or consumption; in poetry, it symbolizes decline, mortality, and the tragic wasting away of life.

Detailed Definition
Wasting describes the progressive loss of body and energy caused by chronic disease, hunger, grief, or prolonged hardship. Unlike a sudden collapse, it emphasizes duration: the patient, season, or household is slowly diminished day by day. In poetry, wasting can make time itself feel predatory, reducing what once seemed abundant. The term is useful in elegy and pastoral decline, where fading landscapes mirror bodies that can no longer sustain their former life.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Wasting fever hollowed her cheeks,” using wasting to show illness gradually consuming the body; In an elegy, “the wasting hours wore down the widow’s voice” compares grief to a weakening disease; “Wasting leaves clung to the November tree” gives autumn a sense of slow decline; A poet may write of “wasting love” to suggest affection diminished by neglect or time
Additional Notes
Refers to gradual loss of flesh, strength, or life through disease or deprivation. It commonly conveys slow decline, exhaustion, starvation, or grief.
Other Meanings of “Wasting”
Also Known As
Consumptive Emaciating Atrophic
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