pentameter

English

Alternative forms

• pentametre

Etymology

PIE word
*pénkʷe

From Middle French pentamètre, by surface analysis, penta- +‎ meter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛnˈtæmɪtə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

pentameter (countable and uncountable, plural pentameters)

1. (poetry, countable) A line in a poem having five metrical feet.
   • 1822, Robert Bland, Elements of Latin Hexameters and Pentameters, third edition, London: John Robinson, page vi:

     The best verses, more especially pentameters, are written on the principle of attracting and fixing the attention to their close.

2. (poetry) Poetic metre in which each line has five feet.

Derived terms

• elegiac pentameter
• iambic pentameter

Related terms

• pentametric

Translations

line in a poem

Dutch: pentameter (nl) m Finnish: pentametri (fi) French: pentasyllabe (fr) m German: Fünfheber m Hungarian: pentameter (hu) Romanian: pentametru (ro) m

poetic metre

Finnish: pentametri (fi) French: pentamètre (fr) m German: Fünfheber m Hungarian: pentameter (hu) Polish: pięciostopowiec m, pentametr m Romanian: pentametru (ro) m

See also

• (poetic meter) monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, octameter, enneameter, decameter, hendecameter, dodecameter ^{(Category: en:Prosody)}

Anagrams

• pentametre