anapest

American  

[an-uh-pest] / ˈæn əˌpɛst /

Or anapaest

noun

Prosody.

1. a foot of three syllables, two short followed by one long in quantitative meter, and two unstressed followed by one stressed in accentual meter, as in for the nonce.

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Other Word Forms

• anapaestic adjective
• anapaestically adverb
• anapestic adjective
• anapestically adverb

Etymology

Origin of anapest

1580–90; < Latin anapaestus < Greek anápaistos struck back, reversed (as compared with a dactyl), equivalent to ana- ana- + pais- (variant stem of paíein to strike) + -tos past participle suffix

Example Sentences

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

From Seattle Times

Five iambs and an anapest was the beat he tramped to now.

From Literature

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

“Electron” was the word she settled on to describe herself, emphasizing the last syllable, the word drawn out into a Gallic anapest.

From New York Times

Pertaining to an anapest; consisting of an anapests; as, an anapestic meter, foot, verse.

From Project Gutenberg