Prosody
//ˈpɹɑzədi// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The study of rhythm, intonation, stress, and related attributes in speech. countable, uncountable
"An accurate acquaintance with the Prosody and Metres of the Greek Language is so necessary an accompaniment of true scholarship, that any attempt to advocate its claims to the notice of the student would be entirely superfluous."
- 2 the study of poetic meter and the art of versification wordnet
- 3 The study of poetic meter; the patterns of sounds and rhythms in verse. countable, uncountable
"But the system of prosody in Samson plainly forbids extrametrical syllables in the midst of the line, and there is certainly no other example."
- 4 the patterns of stress and intonation in a language wordnet
- 5 (prosody) a system of versification wordnet
Example
More examples"Prosody semantics is related to pragmatics."
Etymology
From Middle French prosodie, from Latin prosōdia, from Ancient Greek προσῳδία (prosōidía, “song sung to music; pronunciation of syllable”), from πρός (prós, “to”) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.