iambus

American  

[ahy-am-buhs] / aɪˈæm bəs /

noun

• iambi,
  plural
• iambuses
  plural

1. iamb.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• iambi
  plural
• iambuses
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of iambus

1580–90; < Latin < Greek íambos

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

iambus iambi iambuses

I`n e-x tre-ame de` sire And yet the first makes a iambus, and the second a trocheus ech sillable retayning still his former quantities.

From The Arte of English Poesie by George Puttenham

This may occur when the accent is upon the last syllable of the foot; that is, when the foot is an iambus or an anapest.

From English: Composition and Literature by W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

Choliamb, kō′li-amb, n. a variety of iambic trimeter, having a trochee for an iambus as the sixth foot.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

Pherecratian, consisting of three feet, a trochee, spondee, or iambus in the first place, followed by a dactyl and spondee.

From History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume I by John Dunlop

This influence of the chief accent affects also combinations of two monosyllabic words which make an iambus, and combinations like ego illi, age ergo, in which the second syllable of the second word is elided.

From The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by George Middleton

Note the iambi in the Shelley stanza, line 1, second foot, and line 5, first foot.

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

Certainly those sun-burnt "doughboys" were not bothering themselves about trochees and iambi and such toys of cultivated "literary" persons; they were amusing themselves on the march by inventing words to fit the "goose-step."

From A Study of Poetry by Bliss Perry

These specimens, as is usual in anapestic verse, show considerable freedom in the treatment of the part of the foot containing the light syllables, substituted iambi being very common.

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

Bibaculus wrote poems against the monarchical party; these are referred to as iambi by Quintilian, x.

From The Student's Companion to Latin Authors by George Middleton

Here the tendency is to use iambi and anapests in alternate feet; see especially lines 2, 3, and 5.

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

Trimeter iambus, consisting of six feet, which are generally all iambuses.

From History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume I by John Dunlop

It does not have to consist of five iambuses only, but other feet may be substituted almost at the caprice of the poet.

From The Literature of Ecstasy by Albert Mordell

Thus we have learned to scan lines by iambuses, or rather by their accentual imitations, and a perfect line would consist of ten syllables, of which the alternate ones bore a rhythmical stress.

From The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] Introduction and Publisher's Advertising by William George Clark

But the tendency of the Alexandrine consisting merely of the usual iambuses, is to convey slowness—although it conveys this idea feebly, on account of conveying it indirectly.

From Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 1 January 1848 by Robert Taylor Conrad

It was not by chance that the line of five iambuses became the dominant metre of our language.

From Writings in the United Amateur, 1915-1922 by H. P. (Howard Phillips) Lovecraft

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