noun
- a dactylic line of six feet, as in Greek and Latin epic poetry, in which the first four feet are dactyls or spondees, the fifth is ordinarily a dactyl, and the last is a trochee or spondee, with a caesura usually following the long syllable in the third foot.
- any line of verse in six feet, as in English poetry.
adjective
- consisting of six metrical feet.
noun prosody
- a verse line consisting of six metrical feet
- (in Greek and Latin epic poetry) a verse line of six metrical feet, of which the first four are usually dactyls or spondees, the fifth almost always a dactyl, and the sixth a spondee or trochee
1540s, from Latin hexameter, from Greek hexametros, from hex “six” (see hexa-) + metron “meter” (see meter (n.2)). As a noun from 1570s. Related: Hexametric.