noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A metrical foot in verse consisting of a stressed or heavy syllable followed by an unstressed or light syllable.

   "‘He made us read James Fenton on the genius of the trochee.’"

2. 2
   a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed syllables wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

accentaccentuationalexandrineamphibrachamphimaceranacrusis

Example

More examples

"‘He made us read James Fenton on the genius of the trochee.’"

Etymology

Borrowed from French trochée, via Latin trochaeus from the Ancient Greek τροχαῖος (trokhaîos), derived from τρέχω (trékhō, “run”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.