adjective
- relating to or consisting of dactyls, a metrical foot with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables
Usage: poetry; prosody
Examples
- The poem was written in dactylic hexameter, the traditional meter of epic poetry.
- Dactylic verse creates a distinctive rhythm with its stressed-unstressed-unstressed pattern.
- Homer’s Iliad is composed in dactylic meter.
- The dactylic structure gives the line a galloping quality.
- Students learned to identify dactylic feet in classical poetry.
- The dactylic rhythm mimics the sound of horses’ hooves.