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tetrameter

[te-tram-i-ter]
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noun
  1. Prosody. a verse of four feet.
  2. Classical Prosody. a line consisting of four dipodies in trochaic, iambic, or anapestic meter.
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adjective
  1. Prosody. consisting of four metrical feet.
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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

  • 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.

  • 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
  1. a line of verse consisting of four metrical feet
  2. a verse composed of such lines
  3. (in classical prosody) a line of verse composed of four dipodies
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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

n.

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)).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper