Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The absence of one or more syllables in a line of verse, especially in the last foot.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In prosody, incompleteness of the last foot or measure of a verse; in a wider sense, incompleteness of any foot in a verse.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
shortened orincomplete lastfoot at the end of averse . - noun
Truncation at the close of a line ofpoetry byomission of one or two finalsyllables .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the absence of a syllable in the last foot of a line or verse
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Examples
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Nearly all English metres owe their existence as metres to "catalexis," or pause, for the time of one or more feet, and, as
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Getting the vapors over a critic screaming his outrage in full-throated disgust at the abandonment of humane ideals is to play the courtly stooge in a manner most unbecoming an honest mind. — catalexis
Easing Off Online Obscenities - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
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What does that say about the prospects for assimilation of newcomers from Mexico? catalexis Says:
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* With apologies to catalexis, I took the liberty of substituting a Baby Sinclair picture that I think more closely captures the batshit craziness of Huggy Bear.
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Report this comment to the moderators catalexis Writes:
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For information on the generally overlooked but primarily important function of catalexis in English verse I refer such readers as may be curious about the subject to the Essay printed as an appendix to the later editions of my collected poems.
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_̷ ◡ ◡ _̷ ◡ _̷ ◡ _̷ ◡ _̷ that is, 5-stress trochaic, with dactylic substitution in the first foot and truncation or catalexis of the last foot in the second and fourth lines; or perhaps iambic, with anapestic substitution in the second foot and a feminine ending in the first and third lines.
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a rule, the position and amount of catalexis are fixed.
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