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Literary notes about articulate (AI summary)

In literature, the term articulate is employed in a multifaceted manner that extends from describing the clarity and precision of spoken words to alluding to natural or even anatomical articulation. Writers often use it to depict a character’s ability—or sometimes inability—to express thoughts clearly, as seen where struggles to articulate words underscore emotional or physical distress ([1], [2], [3]). At other times, articulate denotes effective and graceful expression in both speech and gesture, reflecting intellectual finesse or even a certain elegance of form ([4], [5], [6]). Additionally, some authors broaden its scope to include the connection of parts, as in the anatomical sense, thereby linking the clarity of expression with structural organization in nature ([7], [8]). This rich versatility allows authors to weave the concept throughout narrative and expository passages, illustrating both the power and the frailty of communication ([9], [10], [11]).
  1. He tried to say “Come in,” but his tongue refused its office, and he could not articulate a sound.
    — from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay
  2. He was seized with a sort of trembling, and remained a few moments without being able to articulate a word.
    — from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
  3. He wished to articulate a last farewell, but his tongue lay motionless and heavy in his throat, like a stone at the mouth of a sepulchre.
    — from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
  4. He spoke often to me, but the sound of his voice pierced my ears like that of a water-mill, yet his words were articulate enough.
    — from Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World by Jonathan Swift
  5. But distinctness may be improved by practice; the musical qualities, by imitating those who speak with smooth and articulate enunciation.
    — from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero
  6. I found that these people possessed a method of communicating their experience and feelings to one another by articulate sounds.
    — from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
  7. The anterior and posterior limbs in each member of the vertebrate and articulate classes are plainly homologous.
    — from On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
  8. SEGMENTS.—The transverse rings of which the body of an articulate animal or annelid is composed.
    — from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
  9. He is by His nature continuously articulate.
    — from The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer
  10. Cha-no-yu is more than a ceremony—it is a fine art; it is poetry, with articulate gestures for rhythm: it is a modus operandi of soul discipline.
    — from Bushido, the Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe
  11. Languages intricately articulate, flaming mythologies, metaphysical perspectives lost in infinity, arise in remarkable profusion.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

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