adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- dactylically adverb
Etymology
Origin of dactylic
1580–90; < Latin dactylicus < Greek daktylikós. See dactyl, -ic
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.
It is said that Meechan’s fellow satirist, Juvenal, issued a similar warning to ancient Greek critics, infuriated by his cavalier use of the dactylic hexameter, in the second century AD.
From The Guardian • May 26, 2019
Written in sprightly dactylic couplets, The Gashlycrumb Tinies was inspired, said Gorey, by “those 19th century cautionary tales, I guess, though my book is punishment without misbehavior.”
From Slate • Nov. 14, 2018
As such, it’s particularly difficult to adapt to dactylic hexameter, the waltzlike, oom-pah-pah meter of epic poetry, which the Romans inherited from the Greeks.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 8, 2018
Homer composed the “Odyssey” in dactylic hexameter, the six-beat meter that gives the poem its elevated oom-pah-pah, oom-pah-pah cadence.
From New York Times • Sep. 18, 2017
The general anapaestic or dactylic rhythm is much disturbed by the iambic fourth line of the first stanza.
From Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 by Lovecraft, H. P. (Howard Phillips)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
