enjambment

[ en-jam-muhnt, -jamb- ]

noun

, Prosody.

, plural en·jamb·ments [en-, jam, -m, uh, nts, -, jamb, -].

1. the running on of the thought from one line, couplet, or stanza to the next without a syntactical break:

   Enjambment is a creative device of long standing, famously used by Homer, Shakespeare, and Eliot, among many other literary luminaries.

enjambment

/ ɑ̃ʒɑ̃bmɑ̃; ɪnˈdʒæmmənt /

noun

1. prosody the running over of a sentence from one line of verse into the next

Derived Forms

• enˈjambed, adjective

Other Words From

• en·jambed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of enjambment¹

First recorded in 1830–40; from French enjambement, equivalent to enjamb(er) “to stride over, project, encroach” ( en- + -jamber, derivative of jambe “leg” + -ment ); en- ¹, jamb ¹, -ment

Word History and Origins

Origin of enjambment¹

C19: from French, literally: a straddling, from enjamber to straddle, from en- ¹+ jambe leg; see jamb

Example Sentences

This being so, Leithauser’s chapters cover such seemingly ho-hum subjects as iambic pentameter, iambic tetrameter, the stanza, enjambment, rhyming and wordplay.

From Washington Post

And can we talk about some of the wildest enjambment in pop-music history?

From Los Angeles Times

Poetry, with its line breaks, enjambment, repetitions, and attention to language sounds is itself a kind of impediment to language that opens language up.

From Salon

The poem’s leaping form is one of forward-moving fragment and enjambment, of stepping toward and stepping around its chief subject: America.

From The New Yorker

And I think that quality is in the poem both in his style let's call it but also in your lines and your enjambment and your elbows and knees and everything else.

From The New Yorker