anapest

American

[an-uh-pest] / ˈæn əˌpɛst /

Or anapaest

noun

Prosody.

a foot of three syllables, two short followed by one long in quantitative meter, and two unstressed followed by one stressed in accentual meter, as in for the nonce.

Other Word Forms

anapaestic adjective
anapaestically adverb
anapestic adjective
anapestically adverb

Etymology

Origin of anapest

1580–90; < Latin anapaestus < Greek anápaistos struck back, reversed (as compared with a dactyl), equivalent to ana- ana- + pais- (variant stem of paíein to strike) + -tos past participle suffix

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.

Not that one needs to know an anapest from a trochee to enjoy the genre.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 6, 2023

It was a metrically auspicious birth date — the spondee “ONE, TEN” resounding like slaps on a baby’s bottom, the anapest “twenty-EIGHT” hurtling toward the future.

From New York Times • Feb. 15, 2015

Neither did he gallop in wild anapest down the road to Lexington.

From Time Magazine Archive

Five iambs and an anapest was the beat he tramped to now.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

Pertaining to an anapest; consisting of an anapests; as, an anapestic meter, foot, verse.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Webster, Noah

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