{{Short description|Poetic metre of five feet}} '''Pentameter''' ({{langx|grc|πεντάμετρος}}, 'measuring five (feet)') is a term describing the meter of a poem.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Pentameter {{!}} Description & Examples {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/pentameter |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> A poem is said to be written in a particular pentameter when the lines of the poem have the length of five metrical feet.<ref name=":0" /> A metrical foot is, in classical poetry, a combination of two or more short or long syllables in a specific order; although this "does not provide an entirely reliable standard of measurement" in heavily accented Germanic languages such as English.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Foot {{!}} Rhythm, Meter, Poetry {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/foot-prosody |access-date=2025-03-25 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> In these languages it is defined as a combination of one stressed and one or two unstressed syllables in a specific order.<ref name=":1" />
In English verse, pentameter has been the most common meter used ever since the 1500s; early examples include some of Geoffrey Chaucer's work in the 1300s.<ref name=":0" /> The most common foot is the iamb, resulting in iambic pentameter.<ref name=":0" /> Most English sonnets are written in iambic pentameter.<ref name=":0" /> It is also the meter used by Shakespeare in his blank-verse tragedies.<ref name=":0" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:Poetic forms Category:Types of verses
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