terza rima

[ tert-suh ree-muh; Italian ter-tsah ree-mah ]

noun

, Prosody.

1. an Italian form of iambic verse consisting of eleven-syllable lines arranged in tercets, the middle line of each tercet rhyming with the first and last lines of the following tercet.

terza rima

/ ˈtɛətsə ˈriːmə /

noun

1. a verse form of Italian origin consisting of a series of tercets in which the middle line of one tercet rhymes with the first and third lines of the next

Word History and Origins

Origin of terza rima¹

1810–20; < Italian: third rhyme

Word History and Origins

Origin of terza rima¹

C19: from Italian, literally: third rhyme

Example Sentences

Jean Hollander, the author of several books of poetry, took on the translation of the verse — an already herculean task made more difficult by the challenge of re-creating Dante’s terza rima tercets in English.

From Washington Post

“So can I. But that passage is lovely and it’s because of the terza rima. The music of it. The trimeter tolls through that speech of Klytemnestra’s like a bell.”

From Literature

It’s written in rhymed triplets, a version of a form employed by the poets Chaucer and Dante called a terza rima.

From New York Times

The stanzas moved to Dante’s terza rima, but the poem began in patois: “This is how, one sunrise, we cut down them canoes.”

From New York Times

And Dante’s “Inferno,” The Divine Comedy’s first section, was a shout, in terza rima, against a storm of religious and political turmoil in medieval Florence.

From Time