Home › Glossary › Letter U

Uncut hexameter

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 complete, unshortened hexameter line containing all six expected feet

Detailed Definition
Uncut hexameter is a complete dactylic hexameter line preserving all six classical feet without reduction or omission, producing a rolling, stately rhythm; rare in English due to the language’s stress-timed nature, it appears in translations of Homer or Virgil and demands careful scansion to maintain the dactylic (stressed-unstressed-unstressed) flow across all six units.
Example
Example in poetry:
A full dactylic hexameter: "Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris"; "Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus"; "Through the deep forests and over the high mountains he went"; "And the waves of the sea crashed loudly upon the shore"; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God"
Additional Notes
Uncut hexameter preserves all six classical dactylic feet without reduction; rare in English due to stress-timing; students should scan for full dactyls (˘˘) and note the rolling rhythm; used in translations of Homer or Virgil; contrasts with "reduced hexameter."
Also Known As
full dactylic hexameter classical six-beat line intact epic meter Untruncated anapestic hexameter Untruncated hexameter
Skip to main content