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iambus

[ahy-am-buhs] / aɪˈæm bəs /
NOUN
iambic pentameter
Synonyms


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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It has also been proposed to make the third foot a spondee or an iambus, and the remaining feet anapaests, thus: 'Full-sailed | wide-winged | poised soft- | ly forev- | er asway.'

From A Study of Poetry by Bliss Perry

The trochee and the dactyl are interchangeable; and the iambus and the anapest are interchangeable.

From English: Composition and Literature by W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

The daintiest alternation of iambus and trochee is joined to the serpent's cunning in swiftly tripping dactyls.

From Shandygaff by Christopher Morley

“And yēt,” is a complete iambus; but anyet is, like spirit, a dibrach u u, trocheized, however, by the arsis or first accent damping, though not extinguishing, the second.

From Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

In my translation I have used the iambus as the basic metrical unit throughout the entire poem.

From Bearslayer A free translation from the unrhymed Latvian into English heroic verse by Arthur Cropley

Note the iambi in the Shelley stanza, line 1, second foot, and line 5, first foot.

From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden

These specimens, as is usual in anapestic verse, show considerable freedom in the treatment of the part of the foot containing the light syllables, substituted iambi being very common.

From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden

Robert darted to the door, and rushed to the inn, leaving Caumill describing iambi on the road behind him.

From Robert Falconer by George MacDonald

Bibaculus wrote poems against the monarchical party; these are referred to as iambi by Quintilian, x.

From The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by George Middleton

Certainly those sun-burnt "doughboys" were not bothering themselves about trochees and iambi and such toys of cultivated "literary" persons; they were amusing themselves on the march by inventing words to fit the "goose-step."

From A Study of Poetry by Bliss Perry

It was not by chance that the line of five iambuses became the dominant metre of our language.

From Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 by H. P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft

Trimeter iambus, consisting of six feet, which are generally all iambuses.

From History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume I by John Dunlop

Thus we have learned to scan lines by iambuses, or rather by their accentual imitations, and a perfect line would consist of ten syllables, of which the alternate ones bore a rhythmical stress.

From The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] Introduction and Publisher's Advertising by William George Clark

It does not have to consist of five iambuses only, but other feet may be substituted almost at the caprice of the poet.

From The Literature of Ecstasy by Albert Mordell

But the tendency of the Alexandrine consisting merely of the usual iambuses, is to convey slowness—although it conveys this idea feebly, on account of conveying it indirectly.

From Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 1 January 1848 by Robert Taylor Conrad


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