iamb
a foot of two syllables, a short followed by a long in quantitative meter, or an unstressed followed by a stressed in accentual meter, as in Come live / with me / and be / my love.
Origin of iamb
1Words Nearby iamb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use iamb in a sentence
The group seems a sort of combination of the iamb and trochee, and has an element in every possible zone of the movement cycle.
Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 | VariousThe group seems an iamb with a duplicated unaccented syllable.
Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 | VariousOccasionally, however, and especially in the longer poems, the regular recurrence of the iamb is a little monotonous.
Studies of Contemporary Poets | Mary C. SturgeonSome, however, refer it to the supposed lop-sidedness or inequality of badgers' feet, answering to the ⏑— of the iamb.
Minor Poets of the Caroline Period, Vol III | John ClevelandThey are both within the zone of the unaccented syllable of the iamb.
Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 | Various
British Dictionary definitions for iamb
iambus (aɪˈæmbəs)
/ (ˈaɪæm, ˈaɪæmb) /
a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, a short one followed by a long one (◡ –)
a line of verse of such feet
Origin of iamb
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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