trochee

American  

[troh-kee] / ˈtroʊ ki /

noun

Prosody.

1. a foot of two syllables, a long followed by a short in quantitative meter, or a stressed followed by an unstressed in accentual meter.

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trochee British  

/ ˈtrəʊkiː /

noun

1. prosody a metrical foot of two syllables, the first long and the second short ( ) Compare iamb

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Etymology

Origin of trochee

1580–90; < Latin trochaeus < Greek ( poùs ), trochaîos running (foot), equivalent to troch- (variant stem of tréchein to run) + -aios adj. suffix

Example Sentences

Not that one needs to know an anapest from a trochee to enjoy the genre.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 6, 2023

Within its print-hung, paneled walls, smelling of old leather bindings and armchairs, the Grolier is a club of booklovers more interested in a richly tooled cover than in a succulent footnote or limpid trochee.

From Time Magazine Archive

A single stressed syllable, then a trochee, then a dactyl, for prosody nerds.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

Beauty, by this usage, is a trochee, beautiful a dactyl, relate an iamb, intercede an anapest.

From The Principles of English Versification by Baum, Paull Franklin

Two types were chosen, the trochee and the dactyl.

From Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. by Münsterberg, Hugo