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ballad stanza

noun Prosody.

a four-line stanza consisting of unrhymed first and third lines in iambic tetrameter and rhymed second and fourth lines in iambic trimeter, often used in ballads.

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Origin of ballad stanza

First recorded in 1930–35

Words nearby ballad stanza

balladize, ballad metre, balladmonger, ballad opera, balladry, ballad stanza, ball ammunition, Ballance, ball and chain, ball-and-claw foot, ball and ring
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

British Dictionary definitions for ballad stanza

ballad stanza

noun

a four-line stanza, often used in ballads, in which the second and fourth lines rhyme and have three stresses each and the first and third lines are unrhymed and have four stresses each
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