ottava rima

[ oh-tah-vuh ree-muh ]

noun

, plural ot·ta·va ri·mas.

1. an Italian stanza of eight lines, each of eleven syllables (or, in the English adaptation, of ten or eleven syllables), the first six lines rhyming alternately and the last two forming a couplet with a different rhyme: used in Keats' Isabella and Byron's Don Juan.

ottava rima

/ ˈriːmə /

noun

1. prosody a stanza form consisting of eight iambic pentameter lines, rhyming a b a b a b c c

Word History and Origins

Origin of ottava rima¹

1810–20; < Italian: octave rhyme

Word History and Origins

Origin of ottava rima¹

Italian: eighth rhyme

Example Sentences

Although an occasional narrative experiment might disrupt the format, what makes “Law & Order” special is precisely the fact that it has one, like a sonnet, a sestina, or an ottava rima.

From Los Angeles Times

It is written in alexandrines, arranged in ottava rima.

From Project Gutenberg

It is in ottava rima, with the translation prefixed to it of the Latin poem Furor Petroniensis.

From Project Gutenberg

As an appropriate vehicle for an Italian story he took the Italian ottava rima or stanza of eight.

From Project Gutenberg

Of Griselda we have Boccaccio's Italian, and Petrarch's Latin prose, in addition to the anonymous ottava rima version.

From Project Gutenberg