tetrameter

[te-tram-i-ter]

noun

Prosody. a verse of four feet.
Classical Prosody. a line consisting of four dipodies in trochaic, iambic, or anapestic meter.

adjective

Prosody. consisting of four metrical feet.

Origin of tetrameter

1605–15; < Latin tetrametrus < Greek tetrámetros having four measures. See tetra-, meter²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for tetrameter

Historical Examples of tetrameter

It is called a tetrameter, and consists of fifteen syllables (mostly —∪, called trochees).
The Faust-Legend and Goethe's 'Faust'
H. B. Cotterill
A tetrameter brachycatalectic in both sections may also be broken up either by leonine or by inserted rhyme.
A History of English Versification
Jakob Schipper
In its highest order, the lyric or “ode,” it is a tetrameter, the line having the time of eight iambics.
The Unknown Eros
Coventry Patmore
A stanza made up of tetrameter alternating with trimeter is very common.
English: Composition and Literature
W. F. (William Franklin) Webster
The heptameter is usually divided into a tetrameter and a trimeter; the octameter, into two tetrameters.
English: Composition and Literature
W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

British Dictionary definitions for tetrameter

tetrameter

noun prosody

a line of verse consisting of four metrical feet
a verse composed of such lines
(in classical prosody) a line of verse composed of four dipodies

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tetrameter

1610s, from Latin tetrametrus, from Greek tetrametron "verse of four measures," originally neuter of tetrametros (adj.) "having four measures," from tetra- "four" (see tetra-) + metron "measure" (see meter (n.2)).