quadrisyllable

American  

[kwod-ruh-sil-uh-buhl] / ˈkwɒd rəˌsɪl ə bəl /

noun

1. a word of four syllables.

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Other Word Forms

• quadrisyllabic
  adjective
• quadrisyllabical
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of quadrisyllable

First recorded in 1650–60; quadri- + syllable

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

quadrisyllable

The quadrisyllable has Joycean overtones: macneilehrer -- a run-on conjuring up two-headed television journalism, emanating from Washington and New York, dispassionate, in-depth and, in the words of one contributor, "gloriously boring."

From Time Magazine Archive

But a distinction without a difference could not sustain itself: and both alike disguised their emptiness under this pompous quadrisyllable.

From Miscellaneous Essays by Thomas De Quincey

In the second half verse, I do not remember a single instance of deviation from this, though sometimes, but very seldom, the first half verse ends with another quadrisyllable foot.

From Nala and Damayanti and Other Poems by Henry Hart Milman

Of the twenty-one quadrisyllable verse-endings in the Ex Ponto, six involve proper nouns: II ii 76 Dalmatiae, ix 42 Alcinoi, the present passage, IV iii 54 Anticyra, viii 62 Oechalia, and ix 80 Danuuium.

From The Last Poems of Ovid by Mark Bear Akrigg

Note the quadrisyllable ending, and compare EP II ix 41-42 'quis non Antiphaten Laestrygona deuouet? aut quis / munifici mores improbet Alcinoi?'.

From The Last Poems of Ovid by Mark Bear Akrigg

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