Definitions

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

  • noun Verse written in lines of four metrical feet.
  • noun A single line of such verse.
  • noun Classical quantitative verse consisting of four measures of two feet each, especially in iambic, trochaic, or anapestic meter.
  • noun A single line of such verse.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having four measures.
  • noun In prosody, a verse or period consisting of four measures.

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

  • noun (GR. & Latin Pros.) A verse or line consisting of four measures, that is, in iambic, trochaic, and anapestic verse, of eight feet; in other kinds of verse, of four feet.

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

  • noun A line in a poem having four metrical feet.
  • noun A poetic metre in which each line has four feet.

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

  • noun a verse line having four metrical feet

Etymologies

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

[Late Latin tetrametrus, from Greek tetrametron, from neuter of tetrametros, having four measures : tetra-, tetra- + -metron, measure; see –meter.]

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