spondee means A word or metrical foot of two syllables, either both long or both stressed. It carries an Arena rating of 1724, earned across 33 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, spondee ranks #554 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #1,039 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #1,665 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,225 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
spondee is pronounced /ˈspɒndi/.
Why “spondee” is a great word
SPONDEE — [Noun] A metrical foot in poetry consisting of two syllables, both long in classical meter or stressed in modern accentual meter. From Latin spondēus ("spondee"), from Ancient Greek σπονδεῖος (spondeîos, "associated with a libation"), from σπονδή (spondḗ, "libation"); first attested in English in the late 14th century. Unlike a trochee, with its heavy-light descent, or an iamb, with its light-heavy ascent, the spondee is a flat, emphatic plateau—two beats of equal and deliberate weight. It is the doom-doom of a distant drum, the thud-thud of a clenched heart, or the slow, deliberate tread of pallbearers on gravel; a rhythm that marks not a journey, but a point of no return.
Etymology
From Latin spondēus (“spondee”), from Ancient Greek σπονδεῖος (spondeîos, “associated with a libation”) from σπονδή (spondḗ, “libation”): spondees were often used in melodies sung at libations.
noun
- A word or metrical foot of two syllables, either both long or both stressed.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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