hexameter

[ hek-sam-i-ter ]

/ hɛkˈsæm ɪ tər /

Prosody

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noun

a dactylic line of six feet, as in Greek and Latin epic poetry, in which the first four feet are dactyls or spondees, the fifth is ordinarily a dactyl, and the last is a trochee or spondee, with a caesura usually following the long syllable in the third foot.

any line of verse in six feet, as in English poetry.

adjective

consisting of six metrical feet.

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Origin of hexameter

1540–50; <Latin <Greek hexámetros of six measures, equivalent to hexa-hexa- + métr(on) measure + -os adj. suffix

OTHER WORDS FROM hexameter

hex·a·met·ric

[hek-suh-me-trik], /ˌhɛk səˈmɛ trɪk/, hex·a·met·ri·cal, hex·am·e·tral, adjective

Words nearby hexameter

hexahydrothymol, hexahydroxy, hexahydroxycyclohexane, hexameral, hexamerous, hexameter, hexamethonium, hexamethylene, hexamethylenetetramine, hexamine, hexanaphthene

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use hexameter in a sentence

The poem is 7,400 six-beat hexameter lines, divided into six untitled books—not exactly an easy read.
The Book That Changed the World|Jimmy So|October 7, 2011|DAILY BEAST
The alternate hexameter and pentameter are, for most purposes, a more agreeable measure than the hexameter by itself.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846|Various
Secondly, the bulk of our monosyllables are arbitrary with regard to length, which is an unlucky circumstance in Hexameter.
Legends of the Northwest|Hanford Lennox Gordon
Beautiful as is the Evangeline of Longfellow, his Hexameter lines are sometimes hard to scan, and often grate harshly on the ear.
Legends of the Northwest|Hanford Lennox Gordon

Surely the same Hexameter can be written as smoothly and more vigorously without rhyme.
Legends of the Northwest|Hanford Lennox Gordon
When we first discover the epos, hexameter verse has already been selected for its vehicle.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 6|Various

British Dictionary definitions for hexameter

hexameter

/ (hɛkˈsæmɪtə) /

noun prosody

a verse line consisting of six metrical feet

(in Greek and Latin epic poetry) a verse line of six metrical feet, of which the first four are usually dactyls or spondees, the fifth almost always a dactyl, and the sixth a spondee or trochee

Derived forms of hexameter

hexametric (ˌhɛksəˈmɛtrɪk), hexametral or hexametrical, adjective

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