amphibrach

American  

[am-fuh-brak] / ˈæm fəˌbræk /

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.

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amphibrach British  

/ ˈæmfɪˌbræk /

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

• amphibrachic adjective

Etymology

Origin of amphibrach

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

Example Sentences

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.

From Composition-Rhetoric by Brooks, Stratton D.

An amphibrach is a foot consisting of three syllables, with the accent on the second.

From Composition-Rhetoric by Brooks, Stratton D.

Classical prosody distinguished several other feet, some of which are occasionally mentioned in treatises on English verse: amphibrach ◡_◡, tribrach ◡◡◡, pyrrhic ◡◡, paeon _◡◡◡, choriamb _◡◡_.

From The Principles of English Versification by Baum, Paull Franklin

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.

From Elementary Guide to Literary Criticism by Painter, F. V. N. (Franklin Verzelius Newton)