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hendecasyllable

American  
[hen-dek-uh-sil-uh-buhl, hen-dek-uh-sil-] / hɛnˈdɛk əˌsɪl ə bəl, ˌhɛn dɛk əˈsɪl- /

noun

  1. a word or line of verse of 11 syllables.


hendecasyllable British  
/ ˈhɛndɛkəˌsɪləbəl /

noun

  1. prosody a verse line of 11 syllables

"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

Other Word Forms


Etymology

Origin of hendecasyllable

1740–50; < Latin hendecasyllabus < Greek hendekasýllabos. See hendeca-, syllable


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.

See Examples For:

With Statius, as with Martial, the hendecasyllable always begins with a spondee.

From Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal by Harold Edgeworth Butler

It was the beginning of a revolution, which Ferreira completed by abandoning the hendecasyllable for the Italian decasyllable, and by composing the noble and austere 286 Roman poetry of his letters, odes and elegies.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 3 "Fenton, Edward" to "Finistere" by Various

The hendecasyllable and scazon of Catullus became part and parcel of the poetic heritage of Rome, and Martial employs them only less happily than their matchless creator.

From Horace by Theodore Martin

The alternation of this decasyllabic rhythm with the ordinary hendecasyllable is studiously artistic; I have retained it throughout.

From The Poems and Fragments of Catullus by Robinson Ellis

The Italian hendecasyllable is an accentual iambic line of five feet with one unaccented syllable over and included in the rhyme.

From Renaissance in Italy: Italian Literature Part 1 (of 2) by John Addington Symonds

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