caesura

American  

[si-zhoor-uh, -zoor-uh, siz-yoor-uh] / sɪˈʒʊər ə, -ˈzʊər ə, sɪzˈyʊər ə /

noun

plural

caesuras, caesurae

1. Prosody. a break, especially a sense pause, usually near the middle of a verse, and marked in scansion by a double vertical line, as in know then thyself ‖ presume not God to scan.

2. Classical Prosody. a division made by the ending of a word within a foot, or sometimes at the end of a foot, especially in certain recognized places near the middle of a verse.

3. any break, pause, or interruption.

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caesura British  

/ sɪˈzjʊərə /

noun

1. Usual symbol: ||.  (in modern prosody) a pause, esp for sense, usually near the middle of a verse line

2. (in classical prosody) a break between words within a metrical foot, usually in the third or fourth foot of the line

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Other Word Forms

• caesural adjective
• caesuric adjective

Etymology

Origin of caesura

1550–60; < Latin, equivalent to caes ( us ) cut (past participle of caedere ) ( caed- cut + -tus past participle suffix) + -ūra -ure

Example Sentences

Alone on the sea for weeks, Fox has a moment of caesura in his own life, and he finds the experience both rewarding and frightening.

From Slate • Dec. 3, 2019

Among those of a more pessimistic bent, suspicions that somewhere deep in the bowels of Westminster a press release was being composed urging people not to read anything into this cupric caesura.

From The Guardian • Aug. 9, 2019

That is a semicolon from the heavens, you know, it’s like the most amazing caesura, to say these two things that are simultaneous and true.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 20, 2019

It’s an incredibly active act of reading: you must craft some portion of the narrative yourself, filling in the caesura.

From The Verge • Aug. 3, 2017

And had he smeared out with careless thumb All life, from its first birth in the waters To the ultimate dissolution of stars and suns, He had made no more than an ill-timed caesura.

From Mice & Other Poems by Bullett, Gerald