amphibrach

English - English

Definition of amphibrach in English English dictionary

a metrical foot of three syllables, the middle one of which is stressed, e.g. Jamaica

A metrical foot consisting of a long or accented syllable between two short or unaccented syllables, as con-DI-tion or in-FECT-ed

a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed-unstressed syllables (e g , `remember')

A three-syllable poetic foot consisting of a light stress, heavy stress, and a light stress, short on both ends Amphibrachs are quite rare in English, but they can be found in special circumstances, especially when the poet manipulates the caesura to create an unusual effect See caesura, below An example of an English word forming an amphibrach is crustacean

Greek and Latin metrical foot consisting of short, long, and short syllables / ~ ' ~ / (cf the English word "romantic") An example is Matthew Prior's "Jinny the Just " See under foot below

`remember'

a metrical foot of three syllables, the middle one of which is stressed e.g. jaMAIca

A foot of three syllables, the middle one long, the first and last short (⌣ ⌣); as, hăbēr&ebreve

a metrical unit with unstressed-stressed-unstressed syllables e

In modern prosody the accented syllable takes the place of the long and the unaccented of the short; as, pro-phet\'b6ic

Hyphenation

am·phi·brach