triolet

American  

[tree-uh-ley, trahy-uh-lit] / ˌtri əˈleɪ, ˈtraɪ ə lɪt /

noun

1. a short poem of fixed form, having a rhyme scheme of ab, aa, abab, and having the first line repeated as the fourth and seventh lines, and the second line repeated as the eighth.

---

triolet British  

/ ˈtriːəʊˌlɛt /

noun

1. a verse form of eight lines, having the first line repeated as the fourth and seventh and the second line as the eighth, rhyming a b a a a b a b

---

Etymology

Origin of triolet

1645–55; < French: literally, little trio

Example Sentences

"It was to be a triolet on Omniscience," said the Idiot.

From Project Gutenberg

Towards the end of the Middle Ages, courtly poets took up the refrain, experimented with it, refined it, and so developed those highly artificial forms of verse known as roundel, triolet, and ballade.

From Project Gutenberg

Victor the poet, the fashionable Villon, with his ballade, his rondeau, his triolet, his chant-royal!—Victor, who had put his own breast before his at Lens!

From Project Gutenberg

The triolet is a sort of abbreviation of the second variety of rondeau.

From Project Gutenberg

The ballade, rondeau and triolet are favorite expressions of this style of verse, for in general its writers seek difficult stanza forms with rhymes natural but never hackneyed.

From Project Gutenberg