triolet · noun — an eight-line poem whose rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB and whose lines are in iambic tetrameter.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
triolet is pronounced /ˈtriːə(ʊ)lɛt/.
Why “triolet” is a great word
A short, fixed-form poem of eight iambic lines, repeating the first line three times and the second twice in the pattern ABaAabAB. Borrowed from French triolet, a diminutive of trio, meaning 'little trio,' and first attested in English 1645–55. Unlike the rondeau, which unfurls across fifteen lines of complex architecture, or the villanelle, which weaves its two refrains into a longer, haunting lament, the triolet is a compact, playful circuit of sound. It is a melody whistled twice and then recalled, a key turned thrice in a familiar lock, the closing of a verse that was also its opening—a formal demonstration that the end is always folded into the beginning.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
Borrowed from French triolet.
noun
- An eight-line poem whose rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB and whose lines are in iambic tetrameter.e.g.“The triolet, like the sestina and several other forms of French-derived poetry, is a form of rhyming poetry that has lines that repeat.” — 2005, Connie Homan Weaver, Poetry a la Carte, Prufrock Press Inc., →ISBN, page 110:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- tiercet 69% match — A triplet; three lines, or three lines rhyming together. vs triolet →
- biolet 68% match — A six-line poem whose rhyme scheme is ABbaBA. vs triolet →
- rondelet 67% match — A metric verse (form), modeled after the rondeau, in two rhymes over seven lines, the first (in four syllables) being repeated as third and refrain (final one), each other line having eight syllables vs triolet →
- tercet 64% match — a three-line stanza in a poem vs triolet →
- villanelle 63% match — A type of poem, consisting of five tercets and one quatrain, with only two rhymes. vs triolet →
- rondeau 62% match — A fixed form of verse based on two rhyme sounds and consisting usually of 13 lines in three stanzas with the opening words of the first line of the first stanza used as an independent refrain after the second and third stanzas. vs triolet →
- tristich 60% match — A tercet. vs triolet →
- pantoum 60% match — A poem, similar to a villanelle, that comprises a series of quatrains, the second and fourth lines of each stanza repeated as the first and third lines of the next. vs triolet →