amphibrach

[am-fuh-brak]

noun

Prosody.

1. a trisyllabic foot, the arrangement of the syllables of which is short, long, short in quantitative meter, or unstressed, stressed, unstressed in accentual meter. Thus, together is an accentual amphibrach.

amphibrach

/ ˈæmfɪˌbræk /

noun

1. prosody a metrical foot consisting of a long syllable between two short syllables ( ) Compare cretic

Other Word Forms

• amphibrachic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of amphibrach¹

1580–90; < Latin amphibrachus < Greek amphíbrachys short before and after ( amphi- amphi- + brachýs short); amphimacer

Word History and Origins

Origin of amphibrach¹

C16: from Latin, from Greek amphibrakhus, literally: both ends being short, from _amphi- + brakhus short

Example Sentences

One of the most arresting songs on the album is “Spiral,” which consists of thirty-two amphibrachs—three-syllable lines, with the stress in the middle—building toward an affirmation:

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Here the regular accent has yielded to an accent on the middle syllable and there are two amphibrachs.

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There is still another foot, known as the amphibrach, which consists of three syllables, the second of which is accented, as in the word de-ni'-al.

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Without this, months of reading of amphibrachs and trochees and dactyls will not avail.

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Three irregular feet, the pyrrhic, the spondee, the amphibrach, are occasionally found in lines, but not in entire poems, and are often considered merely as substitutes for regular feet.

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