dactyl

/ˈdæktl/

Other forms: dactyls

A dactyl is a unit of poetry consisting of three syllables, the first of which is stressed. The word "poetry" is itself a great example of a dactyl!

When a poem is made up of three-syllable metrical feet, and the emphasis naturally lands on the first syllable of each foot, you call those units dactyls. The Greek root is daktylos, which means "unit of measure" but also "finger." The literary term came from the "finger" meaning — the three bones in a finger represent the three syllables in a dactyl. These lines from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" are written in dactyls: "Flashed all their sabres bare, / Flashed as they turned in air / Sabring the gunners there."

Definitions of dactyl

1. noun

   a finger or toe in human beings or corresponding body part in other vertebrates
   synonyms: digit

   types:

   minimus

   the fifth digit; the little finger or little toe

   finger

   any of the terminal members of the hand (sometimes excepting the thumb)

   toe

   one of the digits of the foot

   pollex, thumb

   the thick short innermost digit of the forelimb

   forefinger, index, index finger

   the finger next to the thumb

   annualry, ring finger

   the third finger (especially of the left hand)

   middle finger

   the second finger; between the index finger and the ring finger

   little finger, pinkie, pinky

   the finger farthest from the thumb

   big toe, great toe, hallux

   the first largest innermost toe

   hammertoe

   a deformed toe which is bent in a clawlike arch

   little toe

   the fifth smallest outermost toe

   type of:

   appendage, extremity, member

   an external body part that projects from the body
2. noun

   a metrical unit with stressed-unstressed-unstressed syllables
   type of:

   foot, metrical foot, metrical unit

   (prosody) a group of 2 or 3 syllables forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm