catalectic

[ kat-l-ek-tik ]

adjective

1. (of a line of verse) lacking part of the last foot; metrically incomplete, as the second line of One more unfortunate,/Weary of breath.

noun

1. a catalectic line of verse.

catalectic

/ ˌkætəˈlɛktɪk /

adjective

1. prosody (of a line of verse) having an incomplete final foot

Word History and Origins

Origin of catalectic¹

1580–90; < Late Latin catalēcticus < Greek katalēktikós incomplete, equivalent to katalēk-, variant stem of katalḗgein to leave off ( kata- cata- + lḗgein to end) + -tikos -tic

Word History and Origins

Origin of catalectic¹

C16: via Late Latin from Greek katalēktikos incomplete, from katalēgein, from kata- off + lēgein to stop

Example Sentences

The former is trochaic—the latter is octameter acatalectic, alternating with heptameter catalectic repeated in the refrain of the fifth verse, and terminating with tetrameter catalectic.

From Project Gutenberg

Iambic tetrameter catalectic, formed of seven feet and a cæsura at the close of the line.

From Project Gutenberg

Here the alternate lines are catalectic, both light syllables being wanting.

From Project Gutenberg

The normal line of which these quatrains are composed is a thirteen-syllabled one divided by a central pause, so that the first half is an iambic dimeter catalectic, and the second an iambic dimeter hypercatalectic.

From Project Gutenberg

To this edition of “The Unknown Eros” are added all the other poems I have written, in what I venture—because it has no other name—to call “catalectic verse.”

From Project Gutenberg