stress-based meter: Metrical systems organized primarily by stress patterns rather than syllable count alone, including accentual meter counting only stresses and accentual-syllabic meter combining stress and syllable patterns. Stress-based meter suits English's natural stress patterns and dominates English prosody. This contrasts with syllabic meters counting only syllables and quantitative meters based on syllable length. Understanding stress-based meter is fundamental for analyzing English poetry and reveals how meter emerges from language's inherent rhythmic properties, with English poetry's prosodic systems reflecting English's stress-timed nature.

Stress-based meter organizes rhythm through patterns of accented syllables rather than syllable length. Unlike quantitative meter, this accentual system underlies English prosody, counting stresses per line.