Home › Glossary › Letter W

weft

Craft Terms
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

Weft is the horizontal thread in weaving that crosses the warp to form cloth; in poetry, it can also suggest the interlacing of imagery, thought, or feeling within a poem.

Detailed Definition
In its literal sense, weft is the crosswise thread that is carried over and under the warp threads during weaving. In poetic language, it often becomes a metaphor for whatever moves through or ties together the structure of a poem: emotion, memory, narrative, or visual pattern. Because it belongs to the language of craft, it is especially useful in poems that compare making a poem to making cloth, fabric, or a textured design.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Cale Young Rice’s Sea-Hoardings, the line “the swallow shall weave my dreams with threads of flight” evokes weft-like movement, suggesting how experience is interlaced into the poem’s fabric.
Additional Notes
The word comes from Old English and is traditionally paired with warp, the lengthwise threads held under tension on a loom. Related craft terms include loom, shuttle, pattern, and warp.
Also Known As
filling weft threads woof
Skip to main content