1. a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by one unstressed syllable
Usage: poetry; prosody

Examples

• The word ‘happy’ is an example of a trochee.
• Shakespeare often used trochees to create emphasis in his verse.
• The poem’s rhythm was built on a pattern of trochees.
• In English poetry, trochees are less common than iambs.
• The trochee gives the line a falling rhythm.
• Students learned to identify trochees by clapping the stressed beats.