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

Etymology

Origin of quadrisyllable

First recorded in 1650–60; quadri- + syllable

Example Sentences

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

A dactyl usually stands in the fourth place, and the fifth and sixth feet are generally made up of a quadrisyllable; as,— armātumque aurō circumspicit Ōrīōna. cāra deum subolēs, magnum Jovis incrēmentum.

From New Latin Grammar by Bennett, Charles E. (Charles Edwin)

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 Milman, Henry Hart

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 Akrigg, Mark Bear

But Alexandrides lengthens the word into a quadrisyllable, and calls it ὠάριον.

From The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athen?us by Athen?us