quatrain

American  

[kwo-treyn] / ˈkwɒ treɪn /

noun

1. a stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternate rhymes.

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quatrain British  

/ ˈkwɒtreɪn /

noun

1. a stanza or poem of four lines, esp one having alternate rhymes

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Etymology

Origin of quatrain

1575–85; < French, equivalent to quatre four (< Latin quattuor ) + -ain < Latin -ānus -an

Explanation

In poetry, a stanza is like a paragraph, and a quatrain is a stanza of exactly four lines, often with an alternating rhyme pattern. Here’s a quatrain from the poem “Dreams” by Langston Hughes: “Hold fast to dreams / For when dreams go / Life is a barren field / Frozen with snow.” Most quatrains use alternating rhyme, like here with go and snow, and all quatrains have four lines, which explains why the French root of the word is quatre, meaning “four.” A quatrain can be one part of a long poem or an entire poem can be one quatrain — the choice is yours.

Example Sentences

Finally, the rest of the Quatrain made sense.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

The last two lines of the Quatrain were also a complete mystery.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Now that the location of the Jade Key was public knowledge, deciphering the Quatrain and figuring out how to obtain the key was relatively easy.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

As soon as Shoto and Daito learned that Frobozz was the Sixers’ destination, they’d easily deciphered the meaning of the Quatrain.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

I kept the Quatrain open in a window that was always on top.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Related Words

• ballad
• composition
• epic
• lyric
• poetry
• rhyme
• sonnet
• verse
• writing