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Windbreak

Landscape
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 line of trees, shrubs, or built barriers that shelters land from strong winds. It creates a protected strip within open country.

Detailed Definition
A windbreak is a planted or constructed barrier that interrupts the force of prevailing weather across fields, roads, or homesteads. In poetry, it can appear as a dark row of trees bent toward one direction, visibly recording years of wind. Its shelter allows crops, birds, and people to gather on its lee side, making it an image of care and resistance. Against an open plain, the windbreak also emphasizes exposure, showing how fragile protection can be deliberately made.
Example
Example in poetry:
The windbreak of poplars sheltered the field, though their leaves flashed silver in the gale; A windbreak can represent protection, as when trees shield a farmhouse from harsh weather; The speaker plants a windbreak along the northern fence, making care for the land part of the poem’s action; Beyond the windbreak, snow swept across the open plain, emphasizing the fragile safety of the house
Additional Notes
A windbreak is a line or belt of trees, shrubs, fencing, or other barriers positioned to reduce wind speed and protect land, crops, buildings, animals, or soil. In landscape poetry it can mark the meeting between cultivated land and exposed weather, suggesting shelter created through human intervention. Trees within a windbreak may also reveal the prevailing wind through their shape. Figuratively, the image can suggest protection or resistance. Compare shelterbelt, hedgerow, hedge, copse, erosion control, enclosure, field boundary, exposed landscape, shelter, and agricultural landscape.
Also Known As
Shelterbelt Wind Fence Shelter Hedge
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