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Literature vocabulary · Poetry

Spondee

Meaning in literature, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In literature, spondee means: A metrical foot with two stressed syllables in stress-based verse.

In Turkish: sponde, iki vurgulu ayak

How it is used

Use for a pair of strong beats; English poems often use it as a local variation rather than a whole meter.

Example sentences

  1. The cry 'stop, stop' creates a spondee that halts the otherwise gentle rhythm.

    Two consecutive strong beats emphasize an urgent interruption.

  2. The tutor questioned our spondee because the second word sounded weak when read aloud.

    Actual spoken stress can challenge a proposed metrical label.

Common collocations

  • a spondaic foot
  • mark a spondee
  • meterA regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in poetry, measured in units called feet, such as the iamb (da-DUM) or the trochee (DUM-da).
  • iambic pentameterA line of poetry made of five iambs, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, giving ten syllables: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.

More terms: Poetry

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