hexameter

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A line of verse consisting of six metrical feet.
2. n. In classical prosody, a line in which the first four feet are either dactylic or spondaic, the fifth dactylic, and the sixth spondaic.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. In prosody, containing or consisting of six measures; having a length of six feet or six dipodies; especially, composed of six feet, of which the first four are dactyls or spondees, the fifth ordinarily a dactyl, sometimes a spondee, and the last a spondee or trochee: as, a hexameter line, verse, or period.
2. n. In prosody, a period, line, or verse consisting of six measures. In books on modern versification, the “measure” and “foot” being ordinarily assumed to be identical, the word hexameter is used as precisely equivalent to hexapody; but according to the nomenclature of classical metrics, a hexameter is a group of six feet only in those classes of feet which are measured by single feet (monopodies). Since iambi, trochees, and anapests are measured by dipodies, an iambic, trochaic, or anapestic hexameter would be a group of twelve feet, a group of six such feet being a trimeter. The name hexameter is given by preëminence to the dactylic hexameter, also called the heroic or epic hexameter, or heroic or epic verse, from its use in Greek and Roman epic poetry from the earliest to the latest period. It is a compound verse consisting of two cola or members, either both of three feet or one of two feet and one of four feet. The heroic hexameter never consists of six dactyls, the last foot being always a spondee , or, as the last syllable of a period may always be either long or short, a trochee as a substitute for a spondee. Some authorities have regarded this meter as catalectic, so that the last foot would be a trochee by omission of the last syllable of the dactyl, or a spondee for the trochee. The fifth foot is rarely a spondee, but a spondee can always be used instead of a dactyl in any of the first four places. The ordinary form of the hexameter is accordingly . A verse with a spondee as fifth foot is said to be spondaic, one consisting entirely of spondees holospondaic, and one entirely (except the last foot) of dactyls holodactylic. The principal cesuras are the trochaic of the third foot, the penthemimeral, and the hephthemimeral; besides which the bucolic cesura or dieresis and the trithemimeral cesura are to be noted. See cesura.

Wiktionary

1. n. countable a line in a poem having six metrical feet
2. n. uncountable a poetic metre in which each line has six feet

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Gr. & Lat. Pros.) A verse of six feet, the first four of which may be either dactyls or spondees, the fifth must regularly be a dactyl, and the sixth always a spondee. In this species of verse are composed the Iliad of Homer and the Æneid of Virgil. In English hexameters accent takes the place of quantity.
2. adj. Having six metrical feet, especially dactyls and spondees.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a verse line having six metrical feet