catalectic

American  

[kat-l-ek-tik] / ˌkæt lˈɛk tɪk /

adjective

1. (of a line of verse) lacking part of the last foot; metrically incomplete, as the second line of One more unfortunate,/Weary of breath.

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noun

1. a catalectic line of verse.

catalectic British  

/ ˌkætəˈlɛktɪk /

adjective

1. prosody (of a line of verse) having an incomplete final foot

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Etymology

Origin of catalectic

1580–90; < Late Latin catalēcticus < Greek katalēktikós incomplete, equivalent to katalēk-, variant stem of katalḗgein to leave off ( kata- cata- + lḗgein to end) + -tikos -tic

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

catalectic

Here the fourth and ninth lines are catalectic.

From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden

The normal line of which these quatrains are composed is a thirteen-syllabled one divided by a central pause, so that the first half is an iambic dimeter catalectic, and the second an iambic dimeter hypercatalectic.

From The Flourishing of Romance and the Rise of Allegory (Periods of European Literature, vol. II) by George Saintsbury

The former is trochaic—the latter is octameter acatalectic, alternating with heptameter catalectic repeated in the refrain of the fifth verse, and terminating with tetrameter catalectic.

From How to Write a Novel A Practical Guide to the Art of Fiction by Anonymous

Knowing this, we can detect the hypercatalectic and catalectic lines.

From Composition-Rhetoric by Stratton D. Brooks

Here, as almost always in English, the measure is catalectic, a final dactyl being instinctively avoided, except in short two-stress lines.

From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden

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