spondee

[ spon-dee ]

noun

, Prosody.

1. a foot of two syllables, both of which are long in quantitative meter or stressed in accentual meter. : 

spondee

/ ˈspɒndiː /

noun

1. prosody a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables ( )

Word History and Origins

Origin of spondee¹

1350–1400; Middle English sponde < Latin spondēus < Greek spondeîos, derivative of spondḗ libation

Word History and Origins

Origin of spondee¹

C14: from Old French spondée, from Latin spondēus, from Greek spondeios, from spondē a ritual libation; from the use of spondee in the music that characteristically accompanied such ceremonies

Example Sentences

The play, written in characteristically supple iambic pentameter, has an unforgettable music of its own, a set of rhythmic surprises sprung in the opening spondee — “Who’s there?” — and developed in a thousand different ways.

From New York Times

In poetic terms, the name is a spondee, two syllables in a row that claim equal force, disrupting the lilt of ordinary speech, like a command or a shout: Shut up, no way, get out.

From New York Times

She adds: “As far as meter goes I think spondees make for the best, snappiest titles: ‘White Noise.’

From New York Times

It was a metrically auspicious birth date — the spondee “ONE, TEN” resounding like slaps on a baby’s bottom, the anapest “twenty-EIGHT” hurtling toward the future.

From New York Times

The four other feet may be either spondees or dactyls.

From Project Gutenberg