Home › Glossary › Letter W

Weakened tercet

Form
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 reduced or diminished three-line stanza differing from standard tercets

Detailed Definition
A weakened tercet is a three-line stanza in which formal cohesion—through rhyme, meter, or syntax—is deliberately loosened to create openness or instability; this approach suits meditative or fragmented poetry, where rigid structure would contradict thematic ambiguity or emotional rawness.
Example
Example in poetry:
A tercet where the third line trails off without resolution: “We walked by the shore, / the waves whispered secrets, / and then—”; A tercet with weak end-stops: “Rain fell softly, / on the roof, / somewhere”; A tercet lacking rhythmic closure: “Leaves drifted down, / wind carried them east, / maybe home”; A tercet with enjambment weakening stanzaic boundaries: “She dreamed of oceans / vast and blue, / but woke to dust”
Additional Notes
Weakened tercet: A three-line stanza where the rhyme or meter is less strict or consistent than in traditional forms like the terza rima; still functions as a unit of thought, but with greater structural flexibility.
Also Known As
Light tercet Weakened three-line Faint triplet Attenuated tercet
Skip to main content