Meaning & use

stanza

noun·Academic

A group of lines forming a unit within a poem, set off from other such units, similar to a paragraph in prose.

See it in a sentence

The poem's final stanza repeats the opening line to give the piece a circular structure.

Each stanza of the ballad follows the same rhyme scheme and number of lines.

A note on using this word

Stanza refers to the structural grouping of lines, while 'verse' can loosely mean either a single line or a whole stanza, so stanza is more precise.

Words with a similar meaning

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