mimiamb means A short humorous dramatic scene in verse. It carries an Arena rating of 1398, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mimiamb ranks #1,818 of 13,274 for The Improbable, #2,259 of 13,274 for Most Exacting Words, #2,320 of 13,274 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,775 of 13,274 for Most Satisfying to Say.
mimiamb is pronounced /ˈmɪmɪam(b)/.
Why “mimiamb” is a great word
A short, humorous dramatic scene in verse. Its lineage flows from the Latin *mimiambus*, from the Ancient Greek *mimiámbous*, a fusion of *mîmos* ("actor, imitator, mime") and *íambos* ("iamb, a metrical foot"). Unlike "mime," which suggests silent physical gesture, or "skit," a loose catch-all for comic brevity, the mimiamb is a literary confection—verse as its vital skeleton, wit as its animating breath. It is the sharp, polished exchange overheard in a marketplace, the ridiculous predicament of a buffoon captured in a handful of precise lines, the fleeting scandal of gods or neighbors rendered with a craftsman's ear for rhythm—a minor art form preserving the whisper of ancient laughter in its metrical bones.
Etymology
From mimiambus, possibly from French mimiambe, from Ancient Greek μιμιάμβους (mimiámbous, “mime-iamb”), from μῖμος (mîmos, “actor, imitator”) + ἴαμβος (íambos, “iamb”).
noun
- A short humorous dramatic scene in verse.“Its discovery, after a sleep of some five centuries and a half, will be as great a surprise to meteorologists as a new classical text, such as the ‘Mimiambs’ of Herondas, to Greek scholars.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- scazon 80% match — A limping satiric meter in classical verse. vs mimiamb →
- choriambus 80% match — A metrical foot consisting of four syllables, of which the first and last are long, and the others short; a choreus, or trochee, united with an iambus. vs mimiamb →
- pentameter 79% match — A line in a poem having five metrical feet. vs mimiamb →
- galliambus 79% match — A verse consisting of four Ionics a minore, with variations and substitutions. vs mimiamb →
- lekythion 78% match — In classical Greek and Latin poetry, a metric pattern defined by a sequence of seven alternating long and short syllables at the end of a verse. vs mimiamb →
- trochee 78% match — A metrical foot in verse consisting of a stressed or heavy syllable followed by an unstressed or light syllable. vs mimiamb →
- spondee 78% match — A word or metrical foot of two syllables, either both long or both stressed. vs mimiamb →
- amoebaeum 78% match — A poem in which people are represented speaking alternately. vs mimiamb →