ottava rima

[oh-tah-vuh ree-muh]

noun

plural

ottava rimas 

1. an Italian stanza of eight lines, each of eleven syllables (or, in the English adaptation, of ten or eleven syllables), the first six lines rhyming alternately and the last two forming a couplet with a different rhyme: used in Keats' Isabella and Byron's Don Juan.

ottava rima

/ ˈriːmə /

noun

1. prosody a stanza form consisting of eight iambic pentameter lines, rhyming a b a b a b c c

Word History and Origins

Origin of ottava rima¹

1810–20; < Italian: octave rhyme

Word History and Origins

Origin of ottava rima¹

Italian: eighth rhyme

Example Sentences

Although an occasional narrative experiment might disrupt the format, what makes “Law & Order” special is precisely the fact that it has one, like a sonnet, a sestina, or an ottava rima.

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The First Four Books of the Civil Wars, an historical poem in ottava rima, appeared in 1595.

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It is in ottava rima, with the translation prefixed to it of the Latin poem Furor Petroniensis.

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As an appropriate vehicle for an Italian story he took the Italian ottava rima or stanza of eight.

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I have not seen this poem, and since it is composed in ottava rima it cannot be classed exactly with the Avvelenato.

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