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dactyl

Pronunciation: /ˈdaktɪl/
Definition of dactyl

noun

Prosody
  • a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables or (in Greek and Latin) one long syllable followed by two short syllables.

Origin:

late Middle English: via Latin from Greek daktulos, literally 'finger' (the three bones of the finger corresponding to the three syllables)

dactyl in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of dactyl in the US English dictionary

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