trochee

[ troh-kee ]

noun

, Prosody.

1. a foot of two syllables, a long followed by a short in quantitative meter, or a stressed followed by an unstressed in accentual meter. : 

trochee

/ ˈtrəʊkiː /

noun

1. prosody a metrical foot of two syllables, the first long and the second short ( ) Compare iamb

Word History and Origins

Origin of trochee¹

1580–90; < Latin trochaeus < Greek ( poùs ), trochaîos running (foot), equivalent to troch- (variant stem of tréchein to run) + -aios adj. suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of trochee¹

C16: via Latin from Greek trokhaios pous , literally: a running foot, from trekhein to run

Example Sentences

Not that one needs to know an anapest from a trochee to enjoy the genre.

From Seattle Times

“Olive onion pigeon”: Those three trochees, with the repetition of O’s and N’s and the slant rhyme of “onion” and “pigeon,” suggest that I was attuned to the music of language.

From New York Times

A single stressed syllable, then a trochee, then a dactyl, for prosody nerds.

From Literature

I heard the hokey trochee at least a dozen times as I sat at the interminable Wacker and Madison red light.

From Wall Street Journal

"Maggie Thatcher" – two fierce trochees set against the gentler iambic pulse of Britain's postwar welfare state.

From The Guardian