pentameter

[pen-tam-i-ter]

noun

1. a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet.

2. Also called elegiac pentameter. Classical Prosody.,  a verse consisting of two dactyls, one long syllable, two more dactyls, and another long syllable.

3. unrhymed verse of five iambic feet; heroic verse.

adjective

1. consisting of five metrical feet.

pentameter

/ pɛnˈtæmɪtə /

noun

1. a verse line consisting of five metrical feet

2. (in classical prosody) a verse line consisting of two dactyls, one stressed syllable, two dactyls, and a final stressed syllable

adjective

1. designating a verse line consisting of five metrical feet

Other Word Forms

• pentametrist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of pentameter¹

1540–50; < Latin pentametrus < Greek pentámetros. See penta-, meter ²

Example Sentences

North of Copenhagen is the city of Elsinore, home to the castle where Hamlet takes place, with its wandering ghosts, ill-advised eavesdropping behind the drapes, conversations with skulls, and deadly duels in iambic pentameter.

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The games were meant to show the various types of poetic meter: iambic pentameter, for example, which William Shakespeare used to marvelous effect in many of his poems and plays.

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"This is the biggest mountain because I was always worried about the iambic pentameter, about blank verse, and not being trained as an actor," he says.

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The pair haven't been afraid to experiment over the years, having produced an entirely silent episode, one all in iambic pentameter and now, in the final series, an episode filmed from a doorbell camera.

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“It came out with this terrific poem written in iambic pentameter,” Preston recalled.

Read more on Los Angeles Times