Home › Glossary › Letter W

wordless phrase

Phrase
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

An expression conveying meaning through silence, gesture, or absence of speech

Detailed Definition
Wordless phrases use caesura, imagery, or negation to articulate the ineffable; they honor what exceeds language—grief, awe, love—making silence itself the poem’s most potent utterance.
Example
Example in poetry:
Wordless phrase: The sigh before speech; the tear that needs no name; the silence after the last note; the wordless phrase is the poem the heart writes without language.
Additional Notes
Wordless phrases convey meaning through silence: “The pause after the last note”; they are not empty but saturated with unspoken emotion; use white space, caesura, or abrupt endings; avoid vagueness—each silence must resonate; related to silent phrase, sigh phrase, and breath phrase; powerful in minimalist, haiku, or postmodern poetry.
Also Known As
silent expression unspoken phrase nonverbal utterance
Skip to main content