anapaest

British

/ ˈænəpɛst, -piːst /

noun

prosody a metrical foot of three syllables, the first two short, the last long ( )

"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

Other Word Forms

anapaestic

adjective

Etymology

Origin of anapaest

C17: via Latin from Greek anapaistos reversed (that is, a dactyl reversed), from anapaiein, from ana- back + paiein to strike

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.

See Examples For:

anapaest

And in this way he made that sort of anapaest which is called the Aristophanic anapaest.

From The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 by Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Home," by Margaret Mahon, is a poem in that rather popular modern measure which seems to waver betwixt the iambus and anapaest.

From Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 by H. P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft

"Gest that swim" would be rather a knotty anapaest, an insupportable foot indeed!

From Among My Books Second Series by James Russell Lowell

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