pantoum

American  

[pan-toom] / pænˈtum /

noun

1. a Malay verse form consisting of an indefinite number of quatrains with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the following one.

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pantoum British  

/ pænˈtuːm /

noun

1. prosody a verse form consisting of a series of quatrains in which the second and fourth lines of each verse are repeated as the first and third lines of the next

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Etymology

Origin of pantoum

1880–85; < French, erroneous spelling for pantoun < Malay pantun

Example Sentences

It is closer to a collection of linked short stories; the first and last of them subtly connect, as if the book were an extended example of that verse form known as the pantoum.

From New York Times • Oct. 6, 2016

The pantoum is particularly theirs—a form arising from their habits of improvisation and competitive versifying.

From Malayan Literature by Various

Did that foreshadow further verse?—a rustic rhapsody, a provincial pantoum?

From Bertram Cope's Year by Fuller, Henry Blake

The pantoum is of Eastern origin, but it came into English through the French.

From The Principles of English Versification by Baum, Paull Franklin