Showing results for "verse"

• a variation of vers.

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• verse
  verse

  noun

  (not in technical use) a stanza.
• -verse
  -verse

  a combining form extracted from universe, occurring as the final element in compounds with the sense “in the sphere or realm of”: Chaos is erupting in the Twitterverse right now. We try to stick with using the Linuxverse on our computers. A new publisher is big news in the writerverse.

verse

¹ American  

[vurs] / vɜrs /

noun

• verses
  plural

1. (not in technical use) a stanza.

2. a succession of metrical feet written, printed, or orally composed as one line; one of the lines of a poem.

3. a particular type of metrical line.

   a hexameter verse.

4. a poem, or piece of poetry.

5. metrical composition; poetry, especially as involving metrical form.

6. metrical writing distinguished from poetry because of its inferior quality.

   a writer of verse, not poetry.

7. a particular type of metrical composition.

   elegiac verse.

8. the collective poetry of an author, period, nation, etc..

   Miltonian verse;

   American verse.

9. one of the short conventional divisions of a chapter of the Bible.

10. Music.

    1. that part of a song following the introduction and preceding the chorus.

    2. a part of a song designed to be sung by a solo voice.

11. Rare. a line of prose, especially a sentence, or part of a sentence, written as one line.

12. Rare. a subdivision in any literary work.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or written in verse.

   a verse play.

verb (used without object)

versed, versing

1. versify.

verb (used with object)

versed, versing

1. to express in verse.

verse ² American  

[vurs] / vɜrs /

verb (used with object)

1. Slang. to play against; be the opponent of, as in a game or match.

   Want to verse me in this new RPG?

   We lost against the Wildcats when we versed them a couple of days ago.

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-verse ³ American  

1. a combining form extracted from universe, occurring as the final element in compounds with the sense “in the sphere or realm of”: Chaos is erupting in the Twitterverse right now. We try to stick with using the Linuxverse on our computers. A new publisher is big news in the writerverse.

2. a combining form extracted from universe, used in forming names for a fictional world associated with a particular media franchise: the BTTF-verse of Back to the Future;

   the Whoniverse of Doctor Who;

   the BTTF-verse of Back to the Future;

   the Vorkosiverse of the Vorkosigan Saga.

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verse British  

/ vɜːs /

noun

1. (not in technical usage) a stanza or other short subdivision of a poem

2. poetry as distinct from prose

3. 1. a series of metrical feet forming a rhythmic unit of one line

   2. ( as modifier )

      verse line

4. a specified type of metre or metrical structure

   iambic verse

5. one of the series of short subsections into which most of the writings in the Bible are divided

6. a metrical composition; poem

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verb

1. a rare word for versify

verse Cultural  

1. A kind of language made intentionally different from ordinary speech or prose. It usually employs devices such as meter and rhyme, though not always. Free verse, for example, has neither meter nor rhyme. Verse is usually considered a broader category than poetry, with the latter being reserved to mean verse that is serious and genuinely artistic.

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verse Idioms  

1. see chapter and verse.

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Synonym Usage

Verse, stanza, strophe, stave are terms for a metrical grouping in poetic composition. Verse is often mistakenly used for stanza, but is properly only a single metrical line. A stanza is a succession of lines (verses) commonly bound together by a rhyme scheme, and usually forming one of a series of similar groups that constitute a poem: The four-line stanza is the one most frequently used in English. Strophe (originally the section of a Greek choral ode sung while the chorus was moving from right to left) is in English poetry practically equivalent to “section”; a strophe may be unrhymed or without strict form, but may be a stanza: Strophes are divisions of odes. Stave is a word (now seldom used) that means a stanza set to music or intended to be sung: a stave of a hymn; a stave of a drinking song. See poetry.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underverse
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• verses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of verse¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English vers(e), fers “line of poetry, section of a psalm,” from Old French vers, Anglo-French verse, veers, and Old English fers, færs, fyrs, from Latin versus “a row, line (of poetry),” literally, “a turning,” equivalent to vert(ere), “to turn” (past participle versus; akin to -ward, worth ²

Origin of verse²

An Americanism dating back to 1980–85; shortening of versus ( def. )

Origin of -verse³

First recorded in 1980–85

Explanation

A poem — especially one that rhymes — is called verse. The children's author Dr. Seuss wrote in verse, and the regular rhymes of "The Cat in the Hat" helped generations of children learn to read. In music, a verse is a section of a song that's often followed by a chorus. Many people can sing the chorus to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," but few realize there are also verses, including one that starts, "Katie Casey was baseball mad." Verse comes from the Latin word versus, which means a line of writing and is based on the Proto-Indo-European root wer, meaning to turn or bend.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

verse verses versed versing

Then he finished a verse and the next thing I know he's gone.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

To this literary stew Mr. Power adds a brief sketch of Barrett Browning’s life, highlighting points at which her path crossed with Homer or led her toward her own efforts at epic verse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Mr. Power’s previous books have mostly been about 18th-century writers, yet he is as much at home with recent free verse as with rhymed couplets and sonnets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

He recently learned that she’d scrawled a Bible verse — Proverbs 3:5-6 — in black Sharpie on the door of her bedroom at her mother’s house.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

Word after word, verse after verse, she joined in, Mama who could not speak four words, singing the beautiful lines without a stammer.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

“The pro-slavery factions were picking on specific verses like ‘slaves obey your masters’ and saying, ‘Well, we’re clearly advancing the more biblical society because look, the Bible says exactly what we’re doing,’” Coffman said.

From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026

Unlike traditional posthumous albums that stitch together loose verses, “Prolific” was recorded and sequenced nearly two years before Hussle’s death.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

Mr. Ackroyd is admiring of Auden’s poetic accomplishment, from his recondite early work to the later, more conversational and religiously inspired verses that some critics have disliked.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

What is most astonishing in Mr. Ackroyd’s brisk, persuasive account is the gulf—and, eventually, chasm—between the discipline and virtuosity of Auden’s verses and his increasingly dissolute and unhappy personal life.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

Imam Malik recites really well and I always like listening to him, but hearing Thaya Jaan connects me to these verses in a way I’ve never experienced before.

From "Amina's Voice" by Hena Khan

Ukraine's success in drone warfare has attracted the attention of rich Gulf states that have been targeted with the same types of Iranian-designed drones that Ukraine is now well versed in countering.

From Barron's ● May 15, 2026

Despite his lack of governance know-how, Pratt is versed in the art of spectacle.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026

Forty-five years old, tall and strikingly handsome, Sumner was the consummate New England intellectual: widely traveled, deeply versed in classics and the law, and staunchly committed to the cause of African-Americans.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026

Seniors are targeted by scammers, if only because they’re more likely to be at home if they’re retired and perhaps are not as well versed in technology as younger generations.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026

They made a perfect team, because Toshiro was a prodigy at videogames, while the much younger Akihide was well versed in American pop culture.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Many former assistants have risen in the Hollywood ranks, and credit Scott Rudin Productions with versing them in the ways of the industry.

From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2021

Deadpool 2 doesn’t have as many characters as Infinity War, but full enjoyment of it is even more conditional on a thorough versing in the source material.

From Slate ● May 17, 2018

Fighting, writing, digging, rigging, Hiving, wiving, nursing, versing.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nixon himself held no illusions about re versing the 1960 decision,* planned to remain above the rumblings about crooked counts.

From Time Magazine Archive

Whoever’s versing him right now is a brave soul.

From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles

Related Words

• ballad
• epic
• jingle
• lyrics
• poem
• poetry
• rhyme
• sonnet
• stanza