View synonyms for iamb

iamb

[ ahy-am, ahy-amb ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

, Prosody.

a foot of two syllables, a short followed by a long in quantitative meter, or an unstressed followed by a stressed in accentual meter, as in Come live / with me / and be / my love.

iamb

/ aɪˈæmbəs; ˈaɪæmb; ˈaɪæm /

a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, a short one followed by a long one ( )
a line of verse of such feet

Origin of iamb¹

First recorded in 1835–45; short for iambus

Origin of iamb¹

C19 iamb, from C16 iambus, from Latin, from Greek iambos

The group seems a sort of combination of the iamb and trochee, and has an element in every possible zone of the movement cycle.

The group seems an iamb with a duplicated unaccented syllable.

Occasionally, however, and especially in the longer poems, the regular recurrence of the iamb is a little monotonous.

Some, however, refer it to the supposed lop-sidedness or inequality of badgers' feet, answering to the ⏑— of the iamb.

They are both within the zone of the unaccented syllable of the iamb.

April 19, 2024tortuous

[tawr-choo-uhs ]

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