Home › Glossary › Letter T

Three-syllable foot

Meter
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 metrical unit containing three syllables in various stress arrangements

Detailed Definition
A three-syllable foot is a metrical unit comprising three syllables, such as the dactyl (stressed-unstressed-unstressed), anapest (unstressed-unstressed-stressed), or amphibrach (unstressed-stressed-unstressed); it introduces rhythmic variety beyond binary iambic/trochaic patterns.
Example
Example in poetry:
Three-syllable foot appears in anapest: “Twas the night before Christmas”; In dactyl: “This is the forest primeval”; In amphibrach: “The curfew tolls the knell”; In contemporary children’s poetry; In A.E. Housman’s “Roman Wall Blues,” mixed three-syllable feet.
Additional Notes
A three-syllable foot is a metric unit with three syllables (dactyl – u u, anapest u u –); key in rhythm analysis.
Also Known As
Trisyllabic foot Three-syllable measure Triple unit Ternary foot Dactyl
Skip to main content