Library / English Dictionary |
STANZA
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A fixed number of lines of verse forming a unit of a poem
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("stanza" is a kind of...):
text; textual matter (the words of something written)
Meronyms (parts of "stanza"):
line (text consisting of a row of words written across a page or computer screen)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stanza"):
couplet (a stanza consisting of two successive lines of verse; usually rhymed)
octave (a rhythmic group of eight lines of verse)
sestet (a rhythmic group of six lines of verse)
envoi; envoy (a brief stanza concluding certain forms of poetry)
quatrain (a stanza of four lines)
Spenserian stanza (a stanza with eight lines of iambic pentameter and a concluding Alexandrine with the rhyme pattern abab bcbc c)
strophe (one section of a lyric poem or choral ode in classical Greek drama)
antistrophe (the section of a choral ode answering a previous strophe in classical Greek drama; the second of two metrically corresponding sections in a poem)
rhyme royal (a stanza form having seven lines of iambic pentameter; introduced by Chaucer)
ottava rima (a stanza of eight lines of heroic verse with the rhyme scheme abababcc)
Holonyms ("stanza" is a part of...):
poem; verse form (a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines)
Context examples:
The pages of his mind were blank, and, without effort, much he read and liked, stanza by stanza, was impressed upon those pages, so that he was soon able to extract great joy from chanting aloud or under his breath the music and the beauty of the printed words he had read.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)