adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- dactylically adverb
Etymology
Origin of dactylic
1580–90; < Latin dactylicus < Greek daktylikós. See dactyl, -ic
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.
It is said that Meechan’s fellow satirist, Juvenal, issued a similar warning to ancient Greek critics, infuriated by his cavalier use of the dactylic hexameter, in the second century AD.
From The Guardian • May 26, 2019
There were monkeypods, “planted as seedlings no taller than chives,” as Mr. Merwin wrote, in impeccable dactylic tetrameter, in an essay in “What Is a Garden?,” which centers on his work in Hawaii.
From New York Times • Mar. 15, 2019
As such, it’s particularly difficult to adapt to dactylic hexameter, the waltzlike, oom-pah-pah meter of epic poetry, which the Romans inherited from the Greeks.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 8, 2018
More specifically, a grammatically- and rhythmically-correct line of dactylic hexameter, the kind used by Virgil and Ovid.
From Slate • Aug. 29, 2017
Yet it is only by mere accident that Homer dealt with gods, wars, mythical events and employed dactylic hexameter.
From The Literature of Ecstasy by Mordell, Albert
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
