Meaning & use
Catalectic
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Describing a line of verse that is metrically incomplete, lacking a syllable in its final foot.
See it in a sentence
The poem's final line is catalectic, ending abruptly one syllable short of a full foot.
Scholars analyzed the catalectic trochaic tetrameter used throughout the ancient hymn.
A note on using this word
A technical term in prosody, the study of poetic meter; its opposite, 'acatalectic,' describes a metrically complete line.
Words with an opposite meaning
acatalectic
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