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

But I tried writing this free verse thing, and I really liked it and wanted to write more things like that.

From Los Angeles Times • May 11, 2026

Renshi is a kind of Japanese collaborative poetry that is more open-ended free verse than older forms like “renku.”

From Seattle Times • Oct. 8, 2022

Its 12 poems were written in free verse, meaning they didn’t rhyme.

From Washington Post • Apr. 30, 2022

Feeling for the first time that I could speak to listening ears, I wrote a wild, crude poem in free verse, coining images of black hands playing, working, holding bayonets, stiffening finally in death ...

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright

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