Iamb (poetry)

An iamb (/ˈæm/ EYE-am) or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry. Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable (as in καλή (kalḗ) "beautiful (f.)"). This terminology was adopted in the description of accentual-syllabic verse in English, where it refers to a foot comprising an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as in abóve). Thus a Latin word like íbī, because of its short-long rhythm, is considered by Latin scholars to be an iamb, but because it has a stress on the first syllable, in modern linguistics it is considered to be a trochee.

Metrical feet and accents
Disyllables
 pyrrhic, dibrach
 iamb
 trochee, choree
 spondee
Trisyllables
  tribrach
  dactyl
  amphibrach
  anapaest, antidactylus
  bacchius
  antibacchius
  cretic, amphimacer
  molossus
See main article for tetrasyllables.
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