What is "anapaest"

Anapaest \An`a*p[ae]st\, Anapaestic \An`a*p[ae]s"tic\ Same as Anapest, Anapestic.

n. (context UK English) (alternative form of anapest English)

n. (archaic form of anapest English)

n. a metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed-stressed syllables [syn: anapest]

An anapaest (also spelled anapæst or anapest, also called antidactylus) is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. In classical quantitative meters it consists of two short syllables followed by a long one; in accentual stress meters it consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. It may be seen as a reversed dactyl. This word comes from the Greek , anápaistos, literally "struck back" and in a poetic context "a dactyl reversed".

Because of its length and the fact that it ends with a stressed syllable and so allows for strong rhymes, anapaest can produce a very rolling verse, and allows for long lines with a great deal of internal complexity.

Apart from their independent role, anapaests are sometimes used as substitutions in iambic verse. In strict iambic pentameter, anapaests are rare, but they are found with some frequency in freer versions of the iambic line, such as the verse of Shakespeare's last plays, or the lyric poetry of the 19th century.