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Compound foot

Meter
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A metrical foot consisting of more than one simple foot unit, such as a combination of trochee and iamb

Detailed Definition
A compound foot is a metrical unit formed by combining two or more simple feet (e.g., spondee + iamb) into a single rhythmic segment, often used to accommodate natural speech patterns or create syncopated effects within otherwise regular meter; it introduces flexibility while preserving underlying prosodic design.
Example
Example in poetry:
An amphibrach combining unstressed-stressed-unstressed; A dactyl combining stressed-unstressed-unstressed; A spondee as dual stressed compound foot; A pyrrhic combining dual unstressed syllables.
Additional Notes
Compound foot|In prosody, a metrical unit that is composed of two or more simple feet, or a complex foot with multiple stresses, like a paeon (four syllables, one stressed) or certain classical feet.
Also Known As
dual foot fused foot compound metric unit Epitrite Paeon Dactyl-epitrite unit
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