hexameter

American  

[hek-sam-i-ter] / hɛkˈsæm ɪ tər /

noun

1. a dactylic line of six feet, as in Greek and Latin epic poetry, in which the first four feet are dactyls or spondees, the fifth is ordinarily a dactyl, and the last is a trochee or spondee, with a caesura usually following the long syllable in the third foot.

2. any line of verse in six feet, as in English poetry.

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adjective

1. consisting of six metrical feet.

hexameter British  

/ hɛkˈsæmɪtə, ˌhɛksəˈmɛtrɪk /

noun

1. a verse line consisting of six metrical feet

2. (in Greek and Latin epic poetry) a verse line of six metrical feet, of which the first four are usually dactyls or spondees, the fifth almost always a dactyl, and the sixth a spondee or trochee

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Other Word Forms

• hexametral adjective
• hexametric adjective
• hexametrical adjective

Etymology

Origin of hexameter

1540–50; < Latin < Greek hexámetros of six measures, equivalent to hexa- hexa- + métr ( on ) measure + -os adj. suffix

Explanation

If the poem you're reading has lines with six metrical feet each, it's written in hexameter — and it's very likely to be a Latin or Greek classic like The Iliad since hexameter was most commonly used in classical epic poetry. Poems using only hexameter lines are unusual, though not unheard of, in English poetry; more often, hexameter lines are included in verse that is mainly written in pentameter. It's challenging to fit English into a classical version of hexameter, which follows specific rules about exactly what kinds of metric feet must be used and in what order. This form was much better suited to Greek and Latin. The word hexameter comes from the Greek hexametros and its roots, hex, "six," and metron, "poetic meter."

Example Sentences

The tone of “Memnon,” written in iambic hexameter, is direct, spare and cast in a tense of tragic inevitability.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 6, 2024

Nowhere is this poetic syncretism more evident than in the title poem, an honor song to the Kiowa warrior and chief laid forth in elegant iambic hexameter.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 5, 2020

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 satires of Ennius were written in various metres, iambic, trochaic, and hexameter, and treated of various topics of personal and public interest.

From The Roman Poets of the Republic by Sellar, W. Y.