Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A verse form of Italian origin, written in lines of 10 or 11 syllables, in which the middle line of each tercet rhymes with the first and third lines of the following tercet.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A form of verse in iambic rhythm used by the early Italian poets.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • A peculiar and complicated system of versification, borrowed by the early Italian poets from the Troubadours.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A type of poem with verses of three lines and a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a verse form with a rhyme scheme: aba bcb cdc, etc.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian : terza, feminine of terzo, third + rima, rhyme.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian, meaning third rhyme.

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Examples

  • I have endured poets, particularly the pretentious variety, gush forth for up to twenty minutes on a wide Saragasso Sea of subjects in a rambling introduction: from Fraser's Golden Bough, to a blow-by-blow description of last week's edition of Deal or No Deal no, really; I mean it, onto a cringe-worthy account of their dismissal for incompetence and then a thorough exposition of what their poem is about and how clever it is that it is written in terza rima.

    Open Mic Disasters of Our Time (no.2) Mr Hopkins says: 2010

  • I have endured poets, particularly the pretentious variety, gush forth for up to twenty minutes on a wide Saragasso Sea of subjects in a rambling introduction: from Fraser's Golden Bough, to a blow-by-blow description of last week's edition of Deal or No Deal no, really; I mean it, onto a cringe-worthy account of their dismissal for incompetence and then a thorough exposition of what their poem is about and how clever it is that it is written in terza rima.

    Archive 2010-05-01 FJ Riley 2010

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