spondee

American  

[spon-dee] / ˈspɒn di /

noun

Prosody.

1. a foot of two syllables, both of which are long in quantitative meter or stressed in accentual meter.

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spondee British  

/ ˈspɒndiː /

noun

1. prosody a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables ( )

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Etymology

Origin of spondee

1350–1400; Middle English sponde < Latin spondēus < Greek spondeîos, derivative of spondḗ libation

Explanation

In a poem, a two-syllable unit of text that's pronounced with equal stress on both syllables is a spondee. Words like "childhood" and "woodchuck" are usually pronounced as spondees. Like the iamb, the anapest, and the dactyl, a spondee is a metrical foot. Rather than structuring the meter of an entire poem, a spondee is more likely to show up as an irregular foot, altering the rhythm or adding interest to a line. If you read a poem out loud at a high volume, and you hear yourself placing equal emphasis on two syllables in a row, you might have found a spondee. Congratulations!

Example Sentences

In poetic terms, the name is a spondee, two syllables in a row that claim equal force, disrupting the lilt of ordinary speech, like a command or a shout: Shut up, no way, get out.

From New York Times • Sep. 11, 2019

It was a metrically auspicious birth date — the spondee “ONE, TEN” resounding like slaps on a baby’s bottom, the anapest “twenty-EIGHT” hurtling toward the future.

From New York Times • Feb. 15, 2015

Perhaps it's not strictly a spondee, but, in bagging a line all to itself, the word seems to insist on taking two full stresses: well come!

From The Guardian • Mar. 29, 2010

There's a lovely contrast between the skippety dactyl of "Merry mites" and the surprising, ceremonious spondee, "Welcome".

From The Guardian • Mar. 29, 2010

Mr. Fabian kneeled like a dactyle: Mr. Jeremiah kneeled like a spondee, or rather like a molossus.

From The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg by Hogg, James