anacrusis means an unstressed syllable at the start of a verse.
anacrusis is pronounced /anəˈkɹuːsɪs/.
Why “anacrusis” is a great word
An unstressed syllable or note (or group of notes) that precedes the first strong beat of a verse or musical phrase. Via New Latin from Ancient Greek ἀνάκρουσις (anákrousis, "pushing up"), from ἀνά (aná, "up") + κρούω (kroúō, "I strike"). First attested in English in the 1830s. Unlike "downbeat," which grounds the measure with authoritative stress, or "caesura," which inserts a deliberate silence within the established flow, anacrusis is the quiet, upward push that gathers energy toward the arrival. It is the singer's indrawn breath, the dancer's preliminary lift before the first full step, or the light, unstressed syllables that launch a line of poetry into its destined rhythm—a prelude so brief it exists only in the act of disappearing.
Etymology
Via New Latin from Ancient Greek ἀνάκρουσις (anákrousis, “pushing up”), from ἀνακρούω (anakroúō, “I push up”), from ἀνά (aná, “up”) + κρούω (kroúō, “I strike”).
noun
- An unstressed syllable at the start of a verse.
- An unstressed note or notes before the first strong beat (or downbeat) of a phrase.“Then Etheridge poised his baton, jerked an upbeat, and made the violinists speak the low G and A of their anacrusis.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- trochee 85% match — A metrical foot in verse consisting of a stressed or heavy syllable followed by an unstressed or light syllable. vs anacrusis →
- arsis 84% match — Raising of the voice in prosody, accented part of a metrical foot vs anacrusis →
- antepenult 84% match — The third-to-last syllable of a word. vs anacrusis →
- scansion 83% match — The rhythm or meter of a line or verse. vs anacrusis →
- caesura 83% match — A pause or interruption in a poem, music, building, or other work of art. vs anacrusis →
- syncopation 83% match — The contraction of a word by means of loss or omission of sounds or syllables in the middle thereof. vs anacrusis →
- iambic 83% match — Consisting of iambs (metrical feet with an unstressed–stressed pattern) or characterized by their predominance. vs anacrusis →
- spondee 82% match — A word or metrical foot of two syllables, either both long or both stressed. vs anacrusis →