Home › Glossary › Letter H

Heterolepsy

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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 rhetorical substitution where one word replaces another with which it is associated (e.g., “crown” for “monarch”), creating indirect reference.

Detailed Definition
Heterolepsy is a metrical substitution in classical poetry where a foot of one type replaces another within a line (e.g., a spondee in dactylic hexameter), creating rhythmic variation for emphasis or emotional effect; it demonstrates the flexibility of quantitative meter within otherwise strict prosodic frameworks.
Example
Example in poetry:
Heterolepsy: A sonnet borrowing sestet from a different form, like Spenserian ending in Petrarchan turn; Modern ghazal using terza rima enjambment; Free verse inserting haiku stanzas unexpectedly; A villanelle breaking pattern with a sestina stanza; Poems grafting haibun prose into lyric sequences; Hybrid forms where meter shifts signal heteroleptic borrowing
Additional Notes
Ending with different meter than beginning. Metrical variation. Greek term. Related: metrical change, heterometric. Study: effect of metrical shift within poem.
Also Known As
word substitution associative replacement
Skip to main content