Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The study of the metrical structure of verse.
- n. A particular system of versification.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The science of the quantity of syllables and of pronunciation as affecting versification; in a wider sense, metrics, or the elements of metrics, considered as a part of grammar (see metrics, 2).
Wiktionary
- n. linguistics The study of rhythm, intonation, stress, and related attributes in speech.
- n. poetry The study of poetic meter; the patterns of sounds and rhythms in verse.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. That part of grammar which treats of the quantity of syllables, of accent, and of the laws of versification or metrical composition.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (prosody) a system of versification
- n. the study of poetic meter and the art of versification
- n. the patterns of stress and intonation in a language
Etymologies
- From Middle French prosodie, from Latin prosōdia, from Ancient Greek προσῳδία (prosōidía, "song sung to music; pronunciation of syllable"), from πρός (pros, "to") + ᾠδή (ōidē, "song"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English prosodie, from Latin prosōdia, accent, from Greek prosōidiā, song sung to music, accent : pros-, pros- + ōidē, song; see ode. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It seems like this whole discussion thread needs a lesson in prosody, mainly because everyone is getting them wrong.”
Barack’s Prosody Problem: A Guest Post - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
“English prosody is regular and veiled, its natural beauties all melancholy; the clouds have shaped its hues, and the sound of waves its modulations.”
“And then, I felt harassed teaching a seminar in prosody — teaching form — at the graduate school level to unwilling, even surly students who were only taking it because they needed the credit.”
“ELISION, the omission or crowding out of unstressed words or unaccented syllables to make the metre smoother; a term belonging to classical prosody and inappropriate in English prosody except where syllable-counting verse is concerned.”
“QUANTITY, the length of a syllable; established by convention in classical prosody; in English prosody very uncertain but always present.”
“SPONDEE, a classical prosody a foot of two long syllables; in English prosody a foot of two 'long' or accented or stressed words or syllables,”
“Verse such as this would permit of every rhythmical variation known in English prosody, and through the appeal of its rhythm would offer the dramatist opportunities for emotional effect that prose would not allow him; but at the same time it could be spoken with entire naturalness by actors as ultra-modern as Mme. Nazimova.”
“Chinese prosody is a very difficult thing for an Occidental to understand.”
“His prosody is based upon the numbers five and seven, a”
“When I began the study of Latin prosody, I devised and explained to my professor a system of signs indicating the different meters and quantities.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prosody’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
Muse's tacet ,to learn
Music brings silence's to raging thoughts and temperament , calm, as it is our object of definite purpose.
tacet, cadence, tempo, treble clef, penultimate, lexicon, origin, orchestra, kantele, magus, eros, coalesce and 248 more...
-
Words without the letter E
chord, slur, anabaptist, anabolic, diabolic, turbid, torpid, somniloquist, trump, bipolar, dioxin, hydrocarbon and 107 more...
-
phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pustule, purulence, pushful, purser, purpureal, putative, purpure, purpresture, purloin, purline, purlieu, purlicue and 1766 more...
-
Prosody
Your terms and additions are welcome.
headless iamb, tailless trochee, dibrach, disyllable, trisyllable, tetrasyllable, pyrrhus, iamb, trochee, choree, choreus, tribrach and 203 more...
-
Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
-
Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
-
cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
-
Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
-
Lyngwistix
semantic, semiotic, linguistic, etc.
lexeme, sonorant, prosody, monophthong, portmanteau, dithyramb, inflection, deixis, mondegreen, screed, persiflage, polysemy and 42 more...
-
the beat & the break
words relating to rhythm
syncope, ascensional, sonant, syncopate, assonance, caesura, prosody, modulation, cadence, rhythm, interval, clitter and 34 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
-
MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
-
Words I Should Use More Often
Words that I'll use to sound erudite.
fungible, aggrandizement, tete-a-tete, sententious, serendipitous, fortuitous, lugubrious, declivity, propitiatory, volubility, august, tenebrous and 214 more...
-
azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for prosody.
sionnach The description of rhythm, loudness, pitch, and tempo. It is often used as a synonym for suprasegmentals, although its meaning is narrower: it only refers to the features mentioned above. Oct 14, 2009