free verse

American

[free vurs] / ˈfri ˈvɜrs /

noun

Prosody.

verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern.

free verse British

noun

unrhymed verse without a metrical pattern

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

free verse Cultural

Verse without regular meter or rhyme. Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman, is written almost entirely in free verse.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

free-versifier

noun

Etymology

Origin of free verse

First recorded in 1905–10

Compare meaning

How does free-verse compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

blank verse vs. free verse

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.

Singsong rhyme and meter are out; free verse and wistfulness are in.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026

I’ve been in a fight with my husband about free verse versus poetic form.

From Los Angeles Times • May 11, 2026

Short chapters presented in free verse make this an easy book to read, though it’s the most sober of the three under review, thanks to the more realistic career of its protagonist.

From New York Times • Oct. 11, 2022

He wrote her postmodern poems — written in free verse, which she had never read before — and taught her how to write her own.

From Washington Post • Aug. 5, 2022

“Looks kind of like free verse, doesn’t it?”

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023